Bug Boy
by Mrs.InsaneOne
Summary: At the tender age of two and a half, little Harry's magic whisks him away from the Dursleys to the Hidden Countries where he is found and adopted by a shinobi clan of Konoha. Main pairing for this version of Bug Boy is open for voting on author's profile; see AN at the bottom of chap 7 for details.
1. A Baby in the Forest

**Disclaimer:** _All HP characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies and all Naruto characters are the property of Masashi Kishimoto. This is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites._

**Warnings:** _Mild to moderate violence, character death, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), some moderate Dumbledore bashing (he's more manipulative than evil but mostly just stubborn), and who knows what else. _

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance. Also, all spoken English will be written in italics in order to distinguish it from spoken Japanese.  
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Prologue: A Baby in the Forest

_November 18, 1982  
Near Konohagakure no Sato, Fire Country_

The peaceful canopies of the monolithic forest were disturbed first by the faint hum of hundreds of tiny black bugs flying through limbs and leaves and then by three humans leaping through the treetops from branch to branch at impossible speeds.

The individual leading the trio was an eighteen year old man that stood at a respectable five feet, eleven and a half inches. He had thick black hair that defied gravity (the dark strands swept up and away from his face as if by a fierce wind) with a close cut mustache and an equally close cut sparse beard that hugged the lower edge of his jaw all the way to his chin where it met up with the outer edge of his mustache to frame his mouth. Over his eyes he wore a pair of dark oval sunglasses with dark frames that completely hid his eyes from sight. Dangling from the left arm of the glasses was a small beaded good luck talisman that had been a recent gift from his beloved fiancée.

His pants were dark gray and held in place on his lower calf by white bandages that were wrapped around his leg and ankle before disappearing inside of a pair of open toed gray boots. He also wore a long-sleeved, high-necked, gray shirt that was completely covered by the loose, high collared light gray jacket that hid the lower half of his face and hung down to the middle of his thighs. Strapped to his back, the young man wore a large round gourd that had a purple tassel tied to the stopper that sealed the mouth of the jar. Sewn to the strap that held the gourd in place was a blue bandana that had a thin, rectangular metal plate attached to it and in the center of the plate was the etching of a stylized leaf.

Behind and slightly to the young man's right, was a seventeen year old man who stood just a half inch shorter than the first man. His chin length brown hair was held in place by a bandana tied backwards over the top of his head; attached to the bandana where it sat over the back of his skull was another of the thin metal plates with the etching of a stylized leaf. In his mouth, he held a long wooden toothpick that he idly chewed on as he dashed from limb to limb beside his companions.

Unlike the first male, this teen wore dark blue pants and boots with the bottom hems similarly wrapped with bandages. He also wore a green, sleeveless flack jacket with a high padded collar that protected the back of his neck and a red spiral centered on the back over top of a long sleeved turtleneck shirt that was also dark blue. Around his right thigh he wore a shuriken case held in place with additional bandages to prevent it from sliding down his leg as he ran. Clipped to the back of his belt was a pair of pale gray utility pouches filled with various weapons, tools, and supplies.

The final and shortest member of the group, at a mere five foot six inches, was a young woman the same age as the first young man. She had long black hair that she kept tucked up beneath the pale green hat she wore with more than a few short strands peeking out from beneath the hat and framing her face. She wore a uniform that looked much like the second young man's uniform with an open fronted pale green jacket over top in place of the green flack jacket; signifying her status as a medic. Like the two young men she was traveling with, she wore a blue headband with a thin metal plate etched with the stylized leaf attached to it; only she wore hers loosely tied around her neck.

The three teens were Jounin shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato; ninjas of the leaf. They were Aburame Shibi, Shiranui Genma, and Fujimoto Taji and they were currently heading home from the high profile escort mission that they'd just completed.

Aburame Shibi, the assigned leader of their small squad, signaled to his two teammates as he unexpectedly stopped his forward movement and crouched down in the branches of the tree he'd landed on. His Kikaichu were going crazy all of a sudden and he was having trouble making out what it was they'd found because they'd unexpectedly descended into what could only be called a feeding frenzy without even a second's warning. Pulling out a kunai, in case it was a trap; Shibi dropped down to the forest floor and followed his swarm as his bugs left the safety of his body in an excited flood (without Shibi's permission) while his teammates tracked him from the trees. The only word he could understand from any of them, even the queens who were nearly twice as intelligent as the male drones, was the word 'sweet'.

After a good ten minutes trailing his Kikaichu through the foliage that grew beneath the monolithic trees of the ancient forest, Shibi began hearing the sound of soft hiccuping sobs above the humming of the Kikaichu. The sound was coming from a small clump of holly bushes that was literally a wash in Kikaichu and Shibi watched the bush rattle and shake in time to the sobs as he crept closer. A few hand signs brought both of his teammates down to his side and the three of them circled the thick tangle of brush as they searched the area for traps. Once they were certain there were no hostiles lingering in the area, Shibi dropped down to his knees and moved close enough to part the bushes so he could see what was hiding beneath the bushes.

"A child?" Shibi gasped softly in shock as his eyes landed on a tiny toddler, covered nearly from head to toe by a living blanket of Kikaichu, curled up in a ball. His quiet exclamation drew the attention of said child and Shibi soon found himself staring into tormented forest green eyes that were glistening brightly with unshed tears. Seeing those eyes grow wider, Shibi quickly addressed the babe in what he hoped was a soft, soothing voice, "Don't be frightened, little bug; no one is going to hurt you."

"What have you found, Shibi?" Taji inquired as she stepped closer.

"A small toddler; based upon his or her size I would say he or she can't be more than eighteen months old, if that," Shibi replied as inched his way deeper into the bush and held his arms out towards the child who was staring at Shibi with an intensity that was out of place on one so young. "Come on, little bug; let's get you out of there so we can take a look at you."

"What would such a young kid be doing out here all alone?" Genma asked with a frown as his eyes continuously scanned the surrounding forest for threats.

Shibi frowned beneath the collar of his jacket as the child shrank away from him and fell unnaturally silent, those expressive green eyes now filled with both fear and confusion. Shibi briefly wondered if the child was frightened of the Kikaichu but dismissed the thought as soon as it crossed his mind; the child wasn't even paying attention to said bugs. In fact, the kid didn't seem to be bothered by the bugs at all and it almost appeared as if the child didn't even realize there were thousands of bugs crawling all over him or her (bar the rather jagged scar on the child's forehead that the Kikaichu were avidly avoiding).

"Do you need help getting the little tyke out of the brush?" Taji inquired when it became obvious that Shibi wasn't having much success.

"Possibly, the child is quite frightened or maybe should I say absolutely terrified."

Taji hunkered down and pushed her way into the brush from the opposite side that Shibi had entered through and the moment she broke into the small pocket where the child was sitting, the little toddler glanced at her, let out a strangled whine, and flung itself into Shibi's still open arms. Large tears trickled down the child's face, dislodging several of the Kikaichu, as Shibi and Taji shared a confused and concerned glance across the small space before they both pulled back out of the brush. Cradling the child carefully (so as not to hurt the child or squish the Kikaichu still covering the child), Shibi stood up and noted that the rest of his swarm followed him and the child. Those bugs that had eaten their fill of the child's chakra, which is what Shibi thought they were doing, appeared almost drunk as they dropped off the small toddler and made their way back to Shibi while yet more of the bugs took their place.

"You're a rather tiny bug, aren't you?" Shibi half declared as he examined the child in his arms.

"Children aren't bugs, Shibi," Taji huffed as she brushed the dirt from her knees before walking up to stand beside Shibi in order to inspect the little one. "Can you tell us your name, sweetie?"

"_Who you? Where Tant Tunia?_" the child cried fearfully in response as he leaned away from the kunoichi and watched her warily; his tiny fists clinging to Shibi's jacket reflexively.

"Either my ears need to be cleaned or the kid just spoke in a language other than Japanese," Genma stated as he tried to clear his ear out to make certain he wasn't hearing things.

"No… I'm pretty certain the child wasn't speaking Japanese but I couldn't tell you which language the child was speaking," Shibi confirmed as he gently brushed the Kikaichu from the child's dirty face so he could see it more clearly (making the child draw back and turn his wide troubled eyes upwards), the teen noting the way the child flinched each time he touched him. "There haven't been any foreigners from beyond the Hidden Borders in Konoha (or any where else that I know of in the Hidden Countries) for years, so where did he come from? How did he end up here of all places?"

"Can you call your bugs off so I can give the child a quick check up?" Taji inquired as she stepped closer which made the child tremble as he or she buried his or her face in Shibi's jacket in order to get away from her. "Oh, you don't have to be frightened of me, sweetie; I'm not going to hurt you."

"I don't have any control of my Kikaichu right now; they've been acting up since the moment they came in contact with the child's chakra," Shibi admitted with a measure of reluctance; the young man extremely uncomfortable with verbally acknowledging the potential weakness. "Let's find some place to set up camp; I don't want to hang around out here in the open on the off chance that the child is part of some trap."

Seven hours later, the three teens were securely encamped in a small hollow. Genma set to making supper for the four of them while Shibi and Taji cleaned up and checked over the child; who'd fallen asleep in Shibi's arms shortly after they'd began moving again. After removing the rags and soiled diaper the child was wearing they discovered the child was a little boy and severely underweight. Beneath the dirt that covered the small tyke from head to toe, the child had dozens of bruises on his arms, legs, and torso in various stages of healing where it looked like someone had cruelly pinched him frequently and repeatedly. Thankfully, aside from those ugly bruises, a painful looking diaper rash, a handful of fresh scratches that they assumed were from when the kid had crawled into the brush where they'd found him, and the obvious malnutrition; he seemed unharmed.

Shibi warmed up some water and washed the boy as best he could, revealing pale skin that made the bruises and scratches stand out even more than before. His hair was an impossible crow's nest of raven locks that reminded Shibi of his own hair, only thinner, softer, and wilder. The oddest feature by far though was the jagged scar on the boy's forehead just above his right eyebrow; it almost looked like someone had carved a lightning bolt on the child's face with a dull kunai, given the raised flesh around the old wound. Once the child was clean, Shibi made several makeshift diapers out of an extra blanket, put one of the triangular pieces of fabric on the boy, and bundled him up in a spare t-shirt he had so he wouldn't catch a cold in the cool air.

"He almost looks like he could be your son, what with his messy hair and the way he didn't even notice all of the bugs crawling all over him," Genma commented playfully as he dished up their meal. "You going to wake him up so he can eat or are you going to let him sleep for now?"

"Mayumi-chan and I aren't married yet, we've only known each other a little over a year, and my best guess is that the child is somewhere between twelve and eighteen months old; meaning he was conceived long before I was engaged. And you know full well that I was never involved with another woman," Shibi logically countered with just the barest hint of a blush coloring his cheeks giving away his embarrassment over his teammate's teasing. "He does look quite a bit like an Aburame though and he is a right cute little bug."

"Stop calling him a bug," Taji ordered with exasperated huff.

"He doesn't mind me calling him a bug," Shibi insisted.

"That's only because he most likely has no idea what you are calling him," Genma pointed out with a laugh as he passed Shibi and Taji each a plate.

Shibi grinned behind the collar of his jacket at the comment but made no reply as he gently shook the child to wake him up. The poor child gave a startled cry of fright once he opened his eyes but calmed down fairly quickly once he was fully awake. He seemed confused when Shibi settled him into his lap and offered him a bite of rice and roasted rabbit that Genma had dished up after making certain it wasn't too hot. The way the boy seemed almost afraid of eating at first made Shibi scowl at the unpleasant picture that was taking form in his mind from the various little clues; such as the bruises, the malnutrition, the filthy rags, and the boy's constant fear and confusion.

_Someone has mistreated the little bug,_ Shibi thought as he patiently encouraged the boy to eat the food he was offering.

After sharing roughly one quarter of what Genma had dished up for them, the boy curled up in Shibi's lap and drifted back to sleep. As he tucked the little one into his sleeping bag, Shibi couldn't help but notice that he was once again crawling with Kikaichu and he worried that his swarm would drive the poor kid to chakra exhaustion. The reply he got back from his bugs on the matter was startling; they kept saying that the boy had an endless supply. He also couldn't help but notice that those bugs that had eaten their fill of the boy's chakra continued to act drunk as they made their way back to him. He'd never known the destruction bugs to behave in such a fashion before and he wondered if maybe they'd been poisoned or if he'd been caught in a genjutsu but found no evidence of either.

Shibi took the first watch that night, managing to get maybe an eighth of his swarm to cooperate (a small fraction of those that had been the first of the Kikaichu to find the boy). They still behaved slightly out of character but at least they were listening to him once more. As he made himself comfortable in a tree over looking their small camp, Shibi made a mental note to speak to his father about his swarm's odd behavior after his team gave their mission report to the Hokage.

Six hours later, Genma relieved Shibi and the tired Aburame stumbled to his sleeping bag and slipped in beside the sleeping child. He'd barely gotten comfortable when a pair of tiny hands latched onto his jacket and cuddled close and Shibi felt an unfamiliar warmth fill him alongside a strong urge to protect. He briefly wondered if this was what it felt-like to be a father or an older brother as he drifted off to sleep with the small child nestled in his arms.

Taji woke Shibi with a hand to the shoulder and he opened his eyes to find the camp mostly packed up and the sky just beginning to lighten indicating that dawn was not far off. He tried to sit up but the small warm bundle clinging to him protested as it burrowed closer to him. Glancing down, Shibi found the child they'd rescued the prior evening practically glued to his jacket; both of his little feet tucked into one of the pockets and the upper half of his body tucked inside of the open jacket (the kid had somehow managed to partially unzip the jacket over the course of the night) with his hands fisted tightly in his t-shirt.

"Maybe you were right and he is a little bug; I don't think I've seen hungry leaches cling to someone with such tenacity before," Genma laughed as he noticed Shibi trying to untangle himself.

"He's starved for attention and warmth," Taji stated sadly. "He has no baby fat to insulate his body so he's clinging to Shibi for his body heat and based upon his reactions last night and his current state of less than perfect health it's easy to see he's been neglected at best and mistreated at worst. Poor dear acted as if he didn't know what to make of the kindness Shibi showed him last night."

"For a tiny little bug, he's got quite the grip," Shibi mused as he finally managed to gently remove the child's hands from his shirt, replaced the makeshift diaper with a clean one, unzipped his jacket a bit more, and tucked the boy inside before zipping it back up as the child snuggled closer and sighed.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you were more attached to the little bug than he is to you," Genma absently declared as he helped Shibi pack up his things since the older shinobi's hands were partially occupied. "You haven't really let go of him once since you pulled him out of the bushes."

"Don't get too attached to him, Shibi; he'll eventually be returned to his family once we can track them down," Taji warned as she took in Shibi's protective demeanor as they took to the trees once more.

Shibi said nothing, he knew the child would go nowhere with anyone until it was proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was not his family that neglected or possibly hurt him. Curling one arm beneath the child, Shibi held him snugly as he traveled through the treetops beside his teammates; his mind half on his surroundings and half on the sleeping child currently clinging to him for dear life.

Most of the shinobi that Shibi had worked with through the years would say he was one cold bastard without any ability to feel emotions but that couldn't be further from the truth; he had just been taught to control his emotions from an early age because extreme emotions tended to upset the Kikaichu (who reflected their host's moods) and create problems. Right now Shibi was feeling the equivalent of a towering rage at the mere thought of handing his tiny burden back to the people who had potentially neglected and abandoned the little child.

Two hours into their morning journey, the silence was shattered by a piercing scream coming from the child nestled inside of Shibi's jacket. All three shinobi cursed softly and dropped to the ground, Genma and Taji monitoring their surroundings for possible threats that might have heard the scream while Shibi tried to find out what was wrong with the child. The first thing he noticed was that the child was still asleep as he suddenly started thrashing about as if fighting for his life. The second thing he noticed was the smell of blood and a quick search revealed that the odd scar on the boy's forehead had split open and was currently bleeding. The last thing Shibi noted as he pulled a roll of gauze from his utility pouch and cut off a section of the bandage that he could use to stem the flow of blood from the child's head was that the boy was burning up with a fever.

The moment the cloth came into contact with the boy's bleeding scar, his tiny hands flew up to grab Shibi's wrist and his eyes flew open to reveal glassy, terror filled emeralds as he cried fitfully, "_Mumma! Bad, bad man! Bad man hurt Mumma. Mumma…? Mumma!?_"

"Shh, don't cry little bug; it was just a night terror. You're safe now," Shibi murmured as he ran the fingers of his free hand through the boy's hair (dislodging dozens of Kikaichu that had been buried in the dark locks) and rocked him gently.

"_I wan Mumma._"

The child's cries eventually trailed off into sniffles and sobs as he buried his face in Shibi's shirt. Shibi spent a few more minutes trying to sooth the child while bandaging his forehead at the same time. He then snuggled him back inside of his jacket and pulled out the rest of the blanket he'd cut the makeshift diapers from and tucked it in around the child to make certain he didn't catch a chill due to the cool winter air brushing against his fevered skin.

"Status?" Taji asked softly once the boy had fallen silent.

"He's suffering from a mild to moderate fever, the scar on his forehead split open (I suspect he snagged it on my jacket zipper while he was thrashing about), and if I had to hazard a guess, I'd say he just suffered though a nightmare. He's sleeping again now and we should get moving."

"If his fever gets any worse, or he starts sweating, let me know so I can take another look at him," Taji insisted as they changed their course slightly before taking to the trees once more.

The child slept fitfully the rest of the morning but didn't cry out again and by the time the small group stopped for a brief rest around noon Shibi was growing concerned; he could feel the heat of the child's fever through his shirt. When he tried to pass the child to Taji so she could scan him in hopes of finding out what was wrong with him, the boy woke up and cried as he clung desperately to Shibi. Taji then tried to diagnose him while Shibi held him in his arms only for the child to start screaming in sheer terror the moment he saw the green chakra of the healing jutsu wrapped around Taji's hands. After a few more tries she gave up as any time she tried to use healing chakra (even the thinnest thread) as the child panicked each time he saw the green energy.

"Why do you suppose he's so scared of the healing chakra?" Taji asked as she sat back on her heels and watched the boy sobbing and babbling hysterically as he huddled inside of Shibi's jacket.

"He might associate the color green with pain if he was seriously injured at some point in the past and someone healed him while he was delirious with pain or someone might have intentionally hurt him with a healing jutsu," Genma ventured around the protein bar he was eating.

"I suppose there's nothing we can do about it for the moment," Taji sighed as she rose to her feet gracefully and pulled her extra canteen off her hip and passed it to Shibi. "See if you can get some fluid into him so he doesn't get too dehydrated. Thankfully, we're not that far from home and we can pass the troublesome gaki to the AnBu to deal with."

Shibi frowned behind his jacket at the mention of passing the child off to another but said nothing as he gently coaxed the tiny mite into drinking the water. After the first sip, he was hard pressed to keep the kid from guzzling down the entire canteen all at once (which would not have been good) and did his best to ration the water out in tiny sips that wouldn't upset the child's stomach. Several minutes and a third of the canteen later, Shibi passed the bottle back to Taji as the child sat calmly inside of his jacket with a protein bar fisted in one hand while he stared blankly out at Taji and Genma. The child's empty hand unexpectedly darted out of the jacket a few seconds later and plucked a low flying moth out of the air and Shibi stiffened as he automatically thought the child would squish the bug (mild distress filling him at the thought of any bug being needlessly harmed due to his close connection with his Kikaichu).

To his surprise the kid merely brought the moth close to his face as he absently chewed on the corner of the protein bar and watched as it crawled all over his hand. The boy then giggled softly before he cut off the happy sound and stared around with fear filled eyes as if he expected to be scolded or punished for daring to laugh. When nothing happened, the child returned his attention to the moth sitting on his finger before lifting it up so Shibi could see it clearly as the child stared up at Shibi with fever bright eyes and weakly declared, "_Bug._"

"Ga," Shibi automatically supplied.

"_Bug?_"

"Ga," Shibi repeated, drawing the sound out a bit as he pointed to the moth.

"Ga?" the boy mimicked slowly.

"Yes, ga," Shibi encouraged with a nod.

"Ga?" the boy asked as he dropped the protein bar and reached inside of the blanket to pull out a handful of Shibi's Kikaichu that had been feasting upon the boy's chakra.

"Chigau, Kikaichu," Shibi corrected patiently, "Ki…kai…chu."

"_Key keye chew?_"

"Kikaichu."

"Kikaichu," the boy carefully repeated as he stared at the bugs crawling over his hands. "Kikaichu _and_ ga."

"Very good, little bug," Shibi praised.

The boy looked like he wanted to say more but at that moment he let out a big yawn before curling back into Shibi's jacket; the moth flying off at the last moment while the destruction bugs merely resumed feasting upon his chakra. He was asleep within seconds and Shibi collected the forgotten protein bar before he glanced up to see Genma grinning manically at him while Taji watched him speculatively.

"I didn't think you had it in you to interact so normally with a kid," Genma teased as the three of them prepared to move out once more.

Shibi rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses in response to the comment and took to the trees, leaving his two teammates to follow. Several hours later, just as the sun was setting in the west, the three shinobi dropped down in front of the huge gate that marked the main entrance of Konoha and checked in with the gate guards. Their team then headed straight to the Hokage's Tower to make their report; both on the success of their mission and on the abandoned child they'd picked up in the woods. Taking to the rooftops, it didn't take more than ten minutes for the trio to make their way to the far side of the village where the Hokage's Tower sat below the Hokage Monument upon which the faces of the village's three Hokage were carved into the face of the mountain.

When they arrived in the Hokage's office, they found that they weren't the only ones reporting to the Sandaime Hokage and they silently waited for the other team to finish their report. Shibi wasn't really paying attention to the other team as the child he'd been carrying was finally stirring after sleeping through the entire afternoon. He hoped the kid would sit quietly and not cause a scene least the hidden AnBu watching over the Hokage mistakenly think someone was attacking the Sandaime Hokage. Luck must not have been listening to Shibi's prayers though because the little boy poked his head out of Shibi's jacket and let out a loud gasp the moment his green eyes fell on the four people standing with their back to him just in front of the Hokage's desk.

"_Mumma! Mumma! Bad man gone now? Mumma take H'ry home now? Mumma?_"

Shibi tried to hold onto the kid but he slipped down through his jacket and ran across the room where he immediately wrapped his arms around the legs of a sixteen year old Chuunin with long red hair. The Chuunin in question, one Uzumaki Kushina, spun around and pulled out a kunai thinking she was being attacked only to freeze when a pair of bright green eyes stared up at her with sheer happiness before the emotions in his eyes melted into desperate longing and confused pain before he crumpled to the floor crying.

"_Not mumma… where mumma? Bad man gone. Why mumma no get H'ry? H'ry wan mumma._"

"What is the meaning of this?" Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage of Konoha, demanded as he glanced from the sobbing child on the floor to Shibi's team even as he signaled for his AnBu guards to hold their positions.

"My apologizes, Hokage-sama," Shibi intoned as he slowly approached the crying child. "We stumbled across the little bug in the woods several miles outside of the village late yesterday evening and brought him back with us the moment it became apparent that he'd been abandoned."

The child in question glanced up at the sound of Shibi's voice and stared at Kushina with tormented, tear filled eyes for a full minute before he crawled over to Shibi and attached himself to his leg and sobbed silently as he pressed his face against Shibi's shin. Kushina tucked away her kunai and knelt down so she was level with the tiny child, her blue eyes filled with concern as she continued to listen to the child's cries.

"Did you know that he's speaking English?" Kushina asked after a few minutes as she looked up first at Shibi and then over her shoulder at the Hokage. "I haven't heard anyone speak English since Mito-sama passed away seven years ago."

"You understood what the child was saying?" Sarutobi asked as he leaned forward over the desk to study the trembling child.

"Hai, Uzushio was one of six portals to the realms beyond the Hidden Borders so we often had foreigners passing through the village and we had to learn many languages in order to speak with them; with English being the first one all children were taught because it is one of the more prominent languages Outside. Had I not been brought to Konoha when I was six, I would have learned at least two or three additional languages. The little one was calling for his mother and kept speaking about a 'bad man'."

"Could you ask him a few questions for me?" Shibi inquired as he gently pried the child off his leg and lifted him up into his arms. "If the Hokage doesn't mind?"

"Please do, Kushina-chan," Sarutobi insisted as his eyes tracked the small child. "The sooner we can clear up the mystery of his appearance in the forest the sooner we can get back to work."

"What did you wish me to ask him?"

"His name, how he ended up in the forest, who his parents are, and where they might be to start with," Shibi stated as he settled the child on his hip as Kushina rose back to her feet.

"Alright," Kushina agreed as she closed her eyes for a moment in order to recall long forgotten English lessons before addressing the child in his native language. "_Hey little one, don't cry; no one will hurt you. Are you looking for your mother?_"

The child flinched back before he furrowed his brow and leaned forward to study Kushina intently before he reached out a small hand and patted Kushina's hair as he babbled, "_Red, like mumma. Bad man hurt mumma. Tant Tunia no like H'ry and mumma gone. Not mumma… who you?_"

"_My name is Kushina, what's your name?_"

"_Mumma say H'ry. Tant Tunia say no H'ry… Tant Tunia say F'eak._"

"_How old are you?_" Kushina asked after a few minutes when she couldn't quite make out what he meant; not wanting to distress the child by asking more questions about his name as he'd been fairly upset by the time he'd finished talking.

"_This many,_" the child replied as he held up his index finger on both hands.

"_Do you know where your mother and father are now, dear?_"

"_Bad man hurt dada, make mumma cry. Bad man hurt mumma, make mumma fall down. Mumma seep'g, no wake. Bad, bad, bad… green light hurts._"

"_How did you end up in the forest little one? Did the bad man put you there?_"

The child tensed and pulled his hand away from Kushina's hair as his eyes went wide with fright and shook his head and whispered, "_Bad man go boom. Tant Tunia not like cry. H'ry no like dark. Wan out. Bright light. Hurts. Cold. All lone._"

"_Shh, you're safe now._"

Kushina brushed her fingers across his cheek to wipe away the tears that had trickled down the boy's face only for him to turn and bury his face against Shibi's jacket as his body was wracked by tremors. Sighing, she dropped her hand and collected her thoughts for a moment before passing along everything she'd learned from the short interrogation.

"I wasn't able to learn much; he's only two so his grasp of the language isn't very good but it was much better than I would have expected of a two year old. He told me his name but I didn't quite catch what it was and didn't bother asking a second time because of how distraught that topic made him. He said the 'bad man' hurt his parents and I'm guessing whoever the person is killed them because the child said his mother was sleeping but wouldn't wake. I'm not certain if he knows his parents names or not but his mother apparently had red hair like mine; which is why he thought I was his mother when he first saw me."

"Did he say how he ended up in the forest?"

"Yes… but it was all jumbled up and confusing. He said something about the dark, a bright light, pain, being cold, and ending up all alone. I asked him if it was the same man who killed his parents but he said the 'bad man go boom'; his words, not mine. If he was older it would have been easier but… well, he's only two."

"Thank you for trying, Kushina. I will summon Yamanaka Inoichi to see if he can view the child's memories to get more information," Sarutobi replied as he waved away her concerns over a less than successful attempt at discovering how the child ended up outside of their village. The aging Sandaime climbed to his feet and walked around the desk to get a closer look at the child before he stuck his head out the door and spoke to his secretary for a moment. He then shut the door and returned to his chair before addressing the Jounin in charge of Kushina's team, "Was there anything more you needed to report regarding your latest mission? No, then you are dismissed. Shibi, please go ahead and give me your mission report while we wait for Inoichi to arrive."

"Did you wish me to stay until Yamanaka-san arrives so I can translate?" Kushina asked as her three teammates filed out of the office.

"No, that won't be necessary, child."

Once Kushina left the office, Shibi gave half of his attention to the Hokage as he began his report by stating that their escort mission had been a success; the other half of his attention was firmly on the still fussy child in his arms. Genma picked up from where he left off; going into detail about the trouble they ran into while on their mission (not counting the child). Taji finished the report speaking of reaching their final destination and how they'd left shortly after seeing the client to his home before going into the details of how they found the child, the less than perfect health of said child, how the child refused to go to anyone but Shibi, and that he was terrified of healing chakra. By that time, Inoichi arrived and gave the child a curious glance before looking to the Hokage for his orders.

"Thank you for coming on such short notice, Inoichi; we have need of your talent for mind delving and according to your father, you are one of the best practitioners in your clan," Sarutobi declared as he leaned back in his chair and chewed on the stem of his pipe. "Shibi's team picked up a little stray on their way home and the poor child speaks not a word of Japanese. He's also far too young to question properly as his grasp of his native language is far too sporadic to give concise answers."

"You wish me to view his memories?"

"Yes, we need to know what happened to his parents, how he ended up in the forest in his current condition, and who his current guardians are. According to what we were able to learn from him, there is a high probability that his parents were killed at some point."

"We should also determine who neglected or harmed the little bug and find out why he is terrified of healing chakra," Shibi added as he shifted the child in his arms.

"I can do that. He's fairly young so it shouldn't take too long to view his memories; maybe an hour at most depending on how clear they are," Inoichi replied as he walked up and placed on hand on the child's head.

The boy flinched and stared up at him with frightened green eyes and Inoichi smiled warmly and ruffled the child's hair a bit before he closed his eyes and brought his other hand up in the form of half the tiger seal and closed his eyes as he activated the mind delving jutsu. While the other individuals in the office watched, the blonde haired man carefully slipped his consciousness inside the child's mind in order to view his memories.

* * *

Inoichi's spirit appeared inside of the child's mind just seconds later and blinked in surprise as he unexpectedly found himself standing amidst the wreckage of what appeared to have once been a nursery room. He had never before seen anyone's inner mind take on such a realistic appearance; in each of his previous mind delving sessions, he had ended up in a large empty room with a giant brain that represented the person's mind or in an empty room filled with barrier seals (the latter usually indicative of the person's ability to influence and protect their own minds or another person meddling with the person's mind or memories.

If he didn't know better, he'd have believed he'd ended up in some kind of genjutsu but no two year old child could have created such a realistic illusion and the room felt natural even if it didn't look it. He even took a moment to test for the usual genjutsu markers just in case the child wasn't really a child but they all turned out negative. It was rather puzzling for the Yamanaka prodigy.

"Who are you?"

Turning around, Inoichi was shocked to see an image of the child whose mind he was inside of sitting in an overturned crib, watching him with curious and worried green eyes. Crouching down so as not to appear quite so intimidating and so he could get a better look at the kid, Inoichi studied the child intently for a few moments before he answered.

"My name is Inoichi. Who are you?"

"I'm Harry. Why are you in my head? How did you get in here?"

"My family is taught how to use a special technique that allows me to see inside of people's minds. As for why I am here, I was asked to find out what happened to your parents and how you ended up in the middle of the forest alone."

"Oh. I tried to tell the pretty woman who was not my mother but I couldn't find the words."

"How is it you are here? How is it you can understand me when you don't speak Japanese? And why does your mind look like a ruined bedroom?"

"This is my head; where else would I be? You aren't talking funny anymore now that you are in my mind. And my mind wasn't always like this but I don't know how to fix it."

"And the reason you aren't speaking or acting like the child you are?"

"My mind remembers everything I have ever seen or heard. I'm only two and a half though, so my body can't keep up with my mind right now. What is it you are here to do? You said you were looking for answers but how did you plan to get them if you didn't know that I was here?"

"I was going to view your memories."

"Oh. It won't hurt, will it?"

"No, it won't hurt. Can you show me where your memories are?"

"They are all around us. Which memory would you like to see first?"

"How about your earliest memory?"

"Do you plan on watching all of my memories?"

"Yes, otherwise it would be rather confusing trying to piece together how you ended up in the forest just outside of the village."

"Oh… I guess you will be here for a while then because there are over two years worth of memories to see. If you give me your hand I will take you to the first memory."

The moment Inoichi grasped the child's tiny hand; he was transported to a small, dark, cramped space. He could hear what sounded like a heart beating in the background and felt warmth. It took him a few minutes to figure out that the memory was of the child's time inside of his mother's womb (which was kind of shocking). A few words to the child took them to the day the child was born in order to avoid spending an unknown amount of time just listening to the heartbeat of the child's mother. Inoichi then watched the first year of the child's life play out, taking note of his mother and father, the three men that frequently visited the small family, and listening closely to the hushed conversations that were held over top of the child as he was being held, changed, or fed.

The feats of magic he witnessed he attributed to chakra manipulation even though the adults in Harry's memories didn't use any hand seals and frequently used what looked like a simple stick to perform the various techniques. The talk of war garnered far more attention; especially whenever the child's parents made allusions to someone they called You-Know-Who being after them and their son. Harry's first birthday came and went and the talk grew darker, numerous deaths were mentioned and frequently Harry's father would come home covered in grime and blood and his clothes tattered and torn. Then there came a day when both adults stopped leaving the house entirely and spent most of their time playing with baby Harry or searching through dusty old books while keeping their child close by.

Inoichi was slightly startled when the child's mental avatar clung to his leg at that point and began crying as the next memory began playing out. He soon understood though when the memory they were viewing grew dark and sinister as he heard the father yelling to the mother that their enemy had found them. Crouching down, Inoichi gathered the grieving child into his arms as he first heard a short battle that had occurred outside of the child's view and then watched the child's mother begging for her son's life, offering herself in his place, before she was coldly cut down as she stepped between her son and the jutsu that had been fired at the child.

What happened next was baffling as the man who'd murdered the woman turned on the child and tried to kill him using the same jutsu that had killed the woman. Only it failed to kill the child and instead ricocheted back and killed the man instead, though the ominous black cloud that rose from the ashes of the dead man's body troubled Inoichi more than he cared to admit; especially the small portion of it that seemed to attack the child before it disappeared. The child was then collected by a giant of a man before the memory ended as the man fed the child a strange greenish-purple liquid from a crystal vial that he'd pulled from his pocket.

The rest of the child's memories were all very similar; featuring a shrill sour woman, a temperamental fat man, and a deplorable overweight baby. The woman often muttered harsh and cruel things to little Harry as she locked him in a cupboard (of all places), the fat man bellowed endlessly as he constantly threatened the child with physical punishment and withheld food, and the butterball baby pinched and kicked the child as he snatched away anything the smaller child had been given (especially food or toys). Anything that gave the child pleasure was immediately taken away by one of the three individuals; even the small spiders and bugs in the cupboard that he had tried to befriend.

When he finally reached the memory of how Harry ended up in the forest he was confused; one minute they'd been inside of the dark cupboard as the boy sobbed silently after his latest punishment for daring to protect himself and the meager rations he'd been given from the tubby little child that always hit him and the next there was a flash of bright light and then they were in the middle of the forest and the memory child screamed and cried as if he was in pain. It made no sense unless it was some kind of transportation jutsu – though no child should have been able to perform such a feat and he knew of no transport jutsu that caused pain.

Inoichi pushed his confusion to the back of his mind as he watched the last few memories; which involved the child spending a couple of days alone in the forest until a cloud of bugs enveloped him just before Shibi and his team rescued the child, fed him, and took care of him. The fear Harry felt when he saw Taji trying to use a healing jutsu on him made perfect sense when he recalled the killing green light that had killed the boy's mother and nearly killed the child as well. He opened his mouth to tell the boy he was finished as they reached the point where Inoichi first walked into the Hokage's office only for the memory to shift to his arrival inside of Harry's mind before he could speak. Once it reached the point where Inoichi grabbed hold of Harry's hand, he found himself once more standing in the wreckage of the nursery and he sucked in a sharp breath when he realized that the ruined room was an exact replica of the nursery from the night of his parents' murders.

"Thank you for showing me your memories, little one. I have to go now."

"Will you ever come back?"

"Probably not… but there is always a chance that I might need to at some point in the future. You will certainly see me around the village if you stay in Konoha though."

"I can stay? You aren't going to send me away?"

"No, we won't send you away."

"Oh good… I think I like it here; the man with the bugs is nice and I like the way the bugs whisper to me even if I can't understand what they are saying."

"You can hear the Kikaichu?"

"Yes… they tickle when they crawl all over me. Aunt Petunia hates bugs and she'd kill my pet spiders… but I guess you already know that. Do you know the way out? I can show you if you like but you'll have to make it quick because I don't think I can stay awake much longer."

"I know the way out… go to sleep and rest child. We will make certain no harm comes to you."

The child stared at him with intense green eyes for a full minute before he nodded and curled back up in the broken crib where he'd been sitting when Inoichi first arrived.

Inoichi stumbled backwards as he ended the jutsu and returned to his own mind. He glanced down at the child whose mind he'd just been searching through and saw a brief glimpse of overly bright and slightly confused green eyes that held just a touch of hope in their depths before the child drifted off to sleep in Shibi's arms. Shaking his head, Inoichi felt a wave of exhaustion wash through him and he probably would have crashed to the floor if not for Taji grabbing hold of his arm and Genma grabbing a chair for him to sit down in.

"Are you alright, senpai?" Taji asked with concern.

"Hai… just tired."

"Was there a problem?" Sarutobi inquired as he glanced between the now sleeping child and the blonde man. "You've been standing there for nearly three hours and I was under the impression that because he was so young it wouldn't take that long. I was on the verge of sending for your father just when you ended your jutsu."

"No problems… just far more memories than I expected," Inoichi assured the Hokage as he ran a hand over the back of his head and craned around to glance at the child again for a moment. "His mind was… like nothing I'd ever seen before. You would not believe the clarity of his memories either; I had trouble believing it and if it had been anyone but a child, I would have believed that I'd been caught up in a genjutsu. And yes, I took the time to confirm that he is just a child."

"What do you mean, Inoichi?"

"Were you able to get any information?" Shibi interjected before Inoichi could answer the Hokage's question.

"He has the potential to become a prodigy in whatever profession he decides to take up and I wouldn't be surprised if he came to be considered a genius on top of that," Inoichi answered as he turned back to meet the Hokage's gaze. "He has a photographic memory and I watched his entire life play out before my eyes. His first memories are actually from before he was even born; when he was still inside of his mother's womb and yes I viewed at least one of them. And, Shibi, I learned everything I'd gone in looking to find in addition to a significant amount of other information."

"And his parents?"

"Dead; they were murdered when he was about fifteen months old and he witnessed his mother's death. Both of them appeared to be some kind of shinobi, as they constantly used chakra to perform strange, seal-less jutsu. The man who killed them used the same basic type of jutsu so I would assume they had been from the same village or at least they had been trained by someone who knew the same techniques. Unfortunately, I was unable to discover the assailant's name as they always referred to him as You-Know-Who; as if afraid just speaking his name would call his attention to them."

"It was a green jutsu that killed the boy's mother; which would explain his fear of healing chakra. The killer tried to use the same jutsu on the child but something went wrong; the jutsu backfired and killed the man instead. It turned the attacker into dust in an instant despite the fact that it left the boy's mother without a mark on her. It was the jutsu that gave the child the scar on his forehead. The jutsu also caused the child considerable pain when it struck him while his mother appeared to have died far too quickly to feel any pain."

Inoichi spent another hour relaying the rest of everything he'd learned about the child's short life; including how his guardians had verbally abused and neglected him, how his equally young cousin constantly attacked him physically, and how he was brought to the forest by some strange transportation jutsu but he couldn't see who had moved the child. The blonde teen also relayed the information that the boy could hear but not understand the Kikaichu and seemed very fond of bugs; mentioning the pet spiders, crickets, and moths he'd kept. He would have mentioned the fact that he'd spoken to the child within his mind but he didn't think any of those present would believe him and he didn't want anyone to question his sanity.

"It's late," Sarutobi declared once they'd finished. "Shibi, would you be willing to keep the child with you for the evening? He seems rather attached to you."

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

"Good; then I'll trust you to see that he's taken care of for the evening. At ten sharp tomorrow morning, I would like you to take him to take him to the hospital so that the rest of his injuries and malnutrition can be dealt with and he can be given a complete check-up. I will have Kushina meet you outside of the Hospital so that she can act as translator for the child and the medics as well as see to it that the child learns that healing chakra won't harm him. If they release him once they are finished with him, you can deliver him to the orphanage since it is readily apparent that his current guardians are unfit to raise him."

Shibi hesitated when the Hokage mentioned the orphanage, the mere idea of leaving the child to be raised in such a cold environment (because no orphanage, no matter how well run, can compare to a loving home complete with a loving family) bothering him more than he cared to admit. He eventually nodded to show his compliance and exited the room without saying a word. Taji and Genma exchanged a single glance before they turned to look at both the Hokage and Inoichi (the blonde once more staring after Shibi and the child).

"How much do you want to bet that Shibi finds a way around the Hokage's order to leave the little bug at the orphanage after he's finished at the hospital tomorrow?" Genma drawled after a moment as he smirked at Taji.

"I don't take sucker's bets," Taji shot back with a snort. "It wouldn't surprise me if that little _boy_ is an Aburame by the end of the week."

"Which would make him a little bug, ne?" Genma shot back to the Hokage's and Inoichi's amusement and Taji's exasperation.

* * *

**Translations:** Japanese to English

AnBu – short for **An**satsu Senjutsu Tokushu **Bu**tai which means Assassination Tactics Special Military Force and they are a group of masked shinobi that answer directly to the Hokage  
Chigau – can be used to mean wrong, no, or to differ  
Fujimoto – a random Japanese last name I picked out of a hat (or actually off a webpage) for Taji since she didn't have a surname in canon  
Ga – moth  
Hai – yes  
Kikaichu – destruction bugs  
Konohagakure no Sato (Konoha) – Hidden Leaf Village  
Ne – used at the end of a sentence for emphasis or clarification; similar to the word 'right' being placed at the end of a question or statement in the English language  
Sandaime Hokage – Third Fire Shadow  
Uzushiogakure – Hidden Whirling Tides Village

Kun/Chan – a form of address usually used when addressing someone younger than you or when addressing someone affectionately.  
Sama – another form of address that is used when dealing with a person in a position of authority or higher social standing.  
San – yet another form of address and can be translated as Mr./Mrs.  
Senpai – still another form of addressed used between equals (usually used when addressing someone older) that is not quite as familiar as the kun/chan address.

**Notes:**

The Hidden Border I refer to in this chapter is what separates the Hidden Countries from the rest of the world (I know it lacks real imagination but I used up my imagination on everything else, lol). Uzushiogakure is not the only hidden village/country that has been used as an entry point; it just happens to be the only one mentioned by name in the story at this point. Crossing the border isn't impossible though people from the Hidden Countries will rarely ever leave and those coming in are few and far between in the current times because a good portion of the world has forgotten that the Hidden Countries exist. More on this will be explained during the story at a later time; I just wanted to explain a bit of it now.

* * *

**AN:** _Just a quick note that I forgot to throw up top; the first six to ten chapters are going to move fairly quickly and meant to set the stage for later chapters; they will mostly be information with some interactive scenes in between to break up the monotony as the main part of the story and plot is set within the Naruto plot line. Also, this is the second oldest Naruto cross-over that I have written and I started it over two years ago when I was still learning about the Naruto verse so there will be a lot of new stuff that was revealed within the manga and anime that didn't make it into the story because I hadn't known about that stuff back then. So, please don't bother correcting me about events; I'll just ignore you since I like to play fast and loose with canon anyway. =) Jenn_


	2. Aburame Satoshi

**Disclaimer:** _All HP characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies and all Naruto characters are the property of Masashi Kishimoto. This is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites._

**Warnings:** _Mild to moderate violence, character death, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), some moderate Dumbledore bashing (he's more manipulative than evil but mostly just stubborn), and who knows what else. _

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

* * *

Chapter 1: Aburame Satoshi

It took four days for Shibi to adopt the green eyed child his swarm had found in the middle of the forest.

The first day was spent at the hospital, where Kushina helped the child get over his fear of medical jutsu by allowing the medic to use a few simple diagnostic jutsu on her to show that they didn't hurt; all the while explaining what was happening to the child in his native language. After that, the child hesitantly allowed them to be used on him but only so long as he was protectively cradled in Shibi's arms; the boy refusing to allow the medics to pick him up or Shibi to set him down on the examination table. By the time they finished healing him, giving him a complete physical (including running a battery of diagnostic tests and taking full body x-rays), and administering the necessary immunizations; the orphanage had closed for the day (conveniently enough) and Shibi took him back to the Aburame compound where he was doted on by both the Aburame Clan members and their Kikaichu for a second night.

The second day was a rather difficult day as Shibi had taken the child to the Hyuuga to check on his chakra network to insure that there would be no problems introducing the Kikaichu to the child's system and because he was concerned over the fact that the child's chakra signature felt so weak. After his swarm of destruction bugs had been feeding from the child for nearly four days straight, it came as quite a shock when it was revealed that the child's chakra network had been completely shut down and his chakra coils severely atrophied. Apparently, whatever energy the Kikaichu were attracted to was not chakra; which explained the odd behavior of the bugs since chakra doesn't tend to make the bugs drunk whereas the energy they fed on from the child did.

Reopening the child's chakra pathways and tenketsu had been a long, drawn out process filled with much pain for the child. Thankfully, Kushina had again accompanied them and patiently explained to the child what was happening and why it hurt. Once the process was over, the child's chakra flowed freely (if sluggishly) once more. The Hyuuga then advised Shibi to bring the child by at least once a week for the next two months so they could be certain that the child's network didn't collapse a second time.

The third day was spent bouncing between the Hospital, the orphanage, and the Hokage's office as Shibi filled out and filed the necessary paperwork to adopt the boy; something he did with the full blessing of his father, his fiancée, and his clan. Inoichi spent several hours with the pair, providing Shibi with the child's birth name, his birth date, information about his parents, and the details about his former guardians. Once the application had been completed and filed, Shibi took it straight to the Hokage and the council to get them to sign off on it (which they did with little fuss after a bit of persuasion from Sarutobi and Aburame Shoichi – Shibi's father and the head of the Aburame Clan).

Legally, the newly named Aburame Satoshi was Shibi's son by the end of the third day; but he wouldn't officially be an Aburame until he had the Kikaichu implanted into his body. Now, normally, an Aburame is born with a single queen already inside of his or her body as his or her mother's swarm lays the queen's egg inside of the fetus around the eighth month of gestation. The queen then attracts additional Kikaichu once the child is born and as the child ages his swarm grows with him. Because Satoshi wasn't born an Aburame, he wasn't born with a queen with which to start his colony and therefore would have to have several eggs implanted within his chakra network in the hopes that at least one of them would hatch out a viable queen.

The process of implanting the eggs was mostly painless as the saliva of a mature Kikaichu acted like an anesthetic and felt rather like a mosquito bite or a deep uncomfortable itch once the effect wore off. Surprisingly, the newly named Satoshi didn't mind the process at all; in fact he remained silent the entire time as five queens burrowed beneath his skin and bored their way to his chakra coils to lay their eggs. Three of the five queens had been selected from his father's swarm while the final two had come from his grandfather's in order to establish a familial bond between Satoshi's future swarm and his adoptive family's swarm.

Unknown to the Aburame overseeing the procedure (including Satoshi's new father and grandfather), only one of the Kikaichu queens laid her eggs within Satoshi's chakra network. The other four actually laid their eggs within Satoshi's magical core, which ran through the center of Satoshi's chakra coils behind his heart and along the length of his spine; completely separate from the chakra network and the reason his tenketsu had been closed off to begin with since chakra and magic usually can't coincide within the same body (not that any of the shinobi within Konoha could have known that).

Once the queens had reemerged, the entire Aburame Clan celebrated long into the night to welcome little Satoshi to their family. Kushina, Inoichi, and Shibi's two teammates were there as well since they'd all helped make Satoshi's adoption possible. It took a while for Satoshi to understand what was going on but once Kushina explained that Shibi had adopted him, he accepted his new family and name without the expected fuss. Of course, being just five months over two years old helped since he hadn't really had enough time to develop a cynical side. The fact that the Aburame Clan had treated him like family from the moment Shibi first brought him home played a large part in his ready acceptance as well.

Shibi spent the two days after the implantation ceremony, the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth of November, bonding with his new son. He introduced Satoshi to his future mother (the lovely Mayumi), purchased a small assortment of clothes and toys for him, and started his education. To start with, Shibi continued the Japanese lessons that he'd begun the day after he'd pulled the child out of the holly bush with the help of a few Japanese primers. Satoshi picked up the language quickly; living up to Inoichi's prediction about the child being a genius due to his photographic memory. Shibi also worked with Satoshi on how to properly stretch and exercise his body in preparation for the day he joined the academy; turning the exercises into a game in order to hold the boy's attention.

On the twenty-sixth, when they returned to the Hyuuga compound to have Satoshi's chakra coils checked; they learned that his coils were rapidly starting to shut down again. This, of course, sparked concern in the new father since it was common knowledge that a person couldn't survive without a chakra network (the young Aburame Heir not aware that a wizard's magical core was meant to replace the chakra network in those born with magic). That led to Shibi scheduling daily therapy sessions with the Hyuuga so they could channel chakra through Satoshi's network to keep it active and encourage his coils to strengthen and grow.

On top of that, Shibi was taught how to circulate a thread of his own chakra through Satoshi's coils in order to help reinforce the results of the therapy sessions. It would take several days for the eighteen year old to learn how to consistently form a small enough chakra thread so as not to overload Satoshi's weakened coils with too much foreign chakra; though he'd only be able to hold the thread for an hour and twenty minutes at a time due to the size of his chakra reserves and his level of control. Still, that was more than long enough to prevent the child's coils from shutting down once more. Furthermore, it was believed that once the Kikaichu eggs within the boy's chakra coils hatched that their presence would help to stabilize the child's coils.

The Hyuuga had brought up the possibility that Satoshi would never be a shinobi because of his faulty chakra coils; hinting that the child would always be weak and sickly (if he lived past his third birthday). However, Shibi refused to believe it; he could see the strength in his adopted son and knew he would one day be a great shinobi if given the chance. He would not give up on his son and as such he approached his teammates with his dilemma.

After three days of deliberation, the three of them approached the Hokage in order to be reassigned; Taji being transferred to the Hospital, Genma going to the academy as an instructor (as a cover to draw attention away from his induction into the AnBu Crops), and Shibi being transferred to the Torture and Interrogation Department as a tracker (whose main duties would be the capture and retrieval of escaped prisoners or potential threats within the village).

While Shibi would have preferred staying on a regular team, he felt he needed to be closer to home in order to raise his son and while he had no interest in torturing prisoners, he was well aware that there were many people out there that were terrified enough of bugs for him to be of use in the T and I Department above and beyond his ability to hunt down and recapture an escaped prisoner. The fact that the job also presented less risk than taking missions out of the village (due to the war between Konoha and Iwa heating up) and provided a steady income didn't hurt either.

The first month he was with the T and I Department, Shibi spent in training; learning the department's rules and regulations and going over department protocol. Each morning he'd be up by five o'clock to make breakfast for himself and his son (Satoshi always waking up whenever he did without fail), drop his son off with his father directly after the meal, and be at headquarters by six-thirty. He'd then spend most of the day listening to lectures, skimming through old reports, and reading through dusty old scrolls on departmental procedures.

At three-fifteen he'd put everything away, gather up his notes, and head home to pick up Satoshi from his father's house where he'd spend around a half an hour listening to his father give a summary of Satoshi's day. The father and son duo would head to the Hyuuga compound where one of the branch members of the Hyuuga Clan would spend roughly an hour strengthening Satoshi's chakra network in hopes that his coils would start expanding instead of shrinking. After they were finished at the Hyuuga's, the two would head home where Mayumi joined them for supper before they spent the rest of the evening bonding as a family; the adults playing a few rounds of Shogi or Go while cuddling with Satoshi and simultaneously working on Satoshi's Japanese.

Satoshi's days paralleled his father's day in many ways. After Shibi dropped him off with Shoichi, Satoshi would spend a half an hour stretching under the watchful eyes of his grandfather. He would then be allowed to play for an hour before Kushina arrived to help him with his Japanese and English lessons on those days that the young kunoichi wasn't out on a mission. Originally, the language lessons weren't going to include English but it was decided that Satoshi should not lose such a useful skill. Satoshi thrived on the challenge of learning the two languages simultaneously. The fact that he was quite taken with Kushina because of her red hair (which was almost the same shade of red as his mother's hair) meant he that he didn't lose focus as quickly as most young children would.

After his English and Japanese lessons were over around nine, Satoshi would spend another half hour learning the basic taijutsu stances in order to improve his balance before being sent to play and burn off any excess energy that had built up over the course of the morning. Lunch was usually a lesson in proper etiquette as Shoichi lectured him on proper posture, manners, and the importance of controlling one's emotions at all times (each day's lecture exactly the same as the day before until it was clear he'd learned the lesson being taught). Most of the words went right over Satoshi's head in the beginning because he hadn't yet grasped the language well enough but by the end of the third recitation he'd memorized the lecture (the newness of the Japanese language slightly hindering his recall at first) even if he wasn't certain what it all meant.

Immediately after lunch, Satoshi would take a two hour nap to rest his young body. He was usually awake by quarter after two and would then spend the rest of the afternoon listening to his grandfather tell stories about the Clan's history while playing with the many Kikaichu that still flocked to him on a regular basis. The highlight of Satoshi's day was the moment Shibi arrived to pick him up; his entire face would light up and his bright green eyes would dance with pure joy as he rushed to greet his new father. Satoshi would contentedly cling to Shibi while Shibi and Shoichi discussed their days with Satoshi occasionally interjecting a comment or two when one of them addressed him before he shyly kissed his grandfather on the cheek to say goodbye as Shibi took him to his afternoon appointment.

On Tuesday, December seventh, exactly two weeks after Satoshi was formally inducted into the Aburame Clan, the Kikaichu eggs implanted in Satoshi's chakra coils and in his magical core finally hatched. He'd been in the middle of his language lessons with Kushina when he suddenly stiffened and pressed his little hands to his heart while the Kikaichu that had been crawling over him immediately dispersed. Shoichi, who'd been monitoring the lesson, immediately asked Kushina to fetch Shibi as he gathered Satoshi into his arms and tenderly rocked the distraught child. Shibi and Kushina returned just in time to see the first Kikaichu larvae emerge from Satoshi's body, the tiny worm-like creature boring its way out through a small hole beside his left earlobe just above his jawbone.

Satoshi reached for Shibi with one hand the moment he saw his father, more than a little confused about what was happening to him and why it hurt so much. The pain stemming from the newly hatched larvae boring their way out of his magical core and chakra coils (the larvae not having the same ability to numb the pain of their passage like the adult beetles could). With Kushina's help, Shibi explained that the eggs the Kikaichu had laid in him were hatching and that once they'd finished the pain would be gone. Satoshi accepted the explanation and the reminder that he would eventually have thousands of bugs living inside of his body and simply clung to his father over the course of the next two hours as the larvae continued to hatch.

When the ordeal was over, Shoichi and Shibi counted a total of one hundred and sixty-six larvae (little over half of the number of eggs that had been laid); one hundred and twenty-eight of which were pale blue in color and twice the size of normal Kikaichu larvae and the remaining thirty-eight were the standard yellow and of average size.

Satoshi thought they were cool while Kushina was a little nauseous after witnessing the process. Once it was confirmed that all of the larvae were healthy; Shibi used his Kikaichu to encourage the larvae to return to Satoshi's body where they would be safe from harm. The two and a half year old ended up sleeping the rest of the morning and all through lunch; his small body exhausted from the stress and pain of the hatching. Shibi stayed until Satoshi fell asleep and thanked his father for sending for him so he could be there for his son during the hatching (a momentous occasion) before returning to work; taking a small detour to let the Hyuuga know that Satoshi would not be up to attending his daily therapy session that afternoon due to the hatching.

Over the course of the next nine days, Satoshi's lessons revolved around the life stages of the Kikaichu to prepare him for the day his larvae entered the pupa stage. Three days after entering the pupa stage, the new Kikaichu beetles would emerge from the pupa shell and Satoshi's Kikaichu would bond with him; giving him the ability to understand and eventually direct the tiny bugs (with training). Satoshi devoured those lessons with unfeigned fascination; his intense green eyes drinking in the various scrolls and pictures that Shoichi used to aide in the lessons with Kushina providing translations for him as needed. By the time the sixteenth of December rolled around and his larvae began to pupate, Satoshi had learned everything there was to learn about the life cycles of the Kikaichu; including the various types of Kikaichu that existed and their different abilities and the differences between the queens and the drones.

During the next three days, Satoshi found it nearly impossible to sit still and was quite often vibrating with suppressed excitement as he waited for his Kikaichu to emerge. He somehow managed to pay attention to his various lessons but it was a near thing and, if not for his eidetic memory, he probably would have missed more than ninety percent of what he'd been taught during those three days. When asked why he was so excited, Satoshi answered that he was looking forward to having little friends that could go everywhere with him.

That simple statement shocked and saddened Satoshi's father and grandfather as they hadn't realized that the child longed to have friends to quite that extent (their clan's close association with bugs typically meaning they were treated almost like outcasts which meant they usually sought companionship inside of the clan). Unfortunately, because their clan was so small (less than thirty individuals in total) and Satoshi the only member under the age of ten, there was no one within the compound with whom he could play. That meant they would have to look outside of the clan for the social interaction that the child craved which meant exposing him to the risk of rejection due to the bugs he now hosted inside of him.

Knowing how sensitive Satoshi could be to any negative interactions (a lingering side effect of the neglect and verbal abuse he'd suffered at the hands of his aunt and uncle), they decided to wait until spring to venture forth to find him a playmate in order to give him plenty of time to adjust to his new life. That would also give him time to grow comfortable with the various individuals he interacted with now, which consisted of the entire clan (including the two youngest teens and one pre-teen of the clan), Shibi's former teammates (Genma and Taji), Kushina, and the handful of Hyuuga branch members that performed his chakra therapy every day.

On the morning of the nineteenth, Shibi woke up an hour earlier than usual to the sound of his adopted son giggling beneath the covers. When he lifted the blanket to see what was going on, he found Satoshi playing with exactly one hundred and twenty-eight larger than normal Kikaichu that were a dark, midnight blue instead of the usual black. The not so tiny bugs had broken free of their pupa shells just a short while earlier and their bonding had woken the young boy. Shibi smiled a rare smile as he shared his son's happiness and he left the little one to get acquainted with his tiny swarm while he got up to take a shower and make breakfast. He was thankful that he'd taken the day off that day so he could spend the entire day helping his son adjust to the newly formed bond.

When he called his son down to eat nearly an hour and a half later, Shibi was mildly surprised to see an additional thirty-eight Kikaichu cupped in Satoshi's hands while the original one hundred and twenty-eight crawled through his hair and over his face. The new group was half the size of the first group and the normal black in color and the eighteen year old Aburame was reminded of the differences in the larvae that had hatched out earlier that month and wondered why the two groups were so different in appearance when they had all been laid by the same type of Kikaichu. Shibi made a mental note to speak to his father about the matter again before he pushed the oddness out of his mind as he focused on his son and the newly hatched destruction bugs.

"Can you hear them speaking to you now, little bug?" Shibi asked once Satoshi had settled into his chair.

"Hai, tousan," Satoshi replied with a smile as he herded the thirty-eight normal bugs out of his hand so he could eat. "Is more easy understand they now; not like before."

"It is much easier to understand them now," Shibi corrected gently, waiting for Satoshi to repeat the corrections before continuing the conversation. "I'm glad to hear that you are not having any trouble communicating with your new swarm. Are you having any trouble keeping track of everything they tell you?"

"Not now. Was weird first. We late today?"

"Are we running late today… would be the correct way to ask that question and no, we are not running late; I'm not working today. I took the day off so that I could spend it with you."

"Really?"

"Truly, little bug," Shibi replied with another smile over the excitement he could hear in his son's voice. "I wanted to be here when your Kikaichu emerged because your first bonding is a special occasion. I just wasn't expecting them to arrive before the dawn."

Satoshi giggled over that admission even as he beamed over the news that he'd get to spend the entire day with his father; a rare treat since Shibi joined the T and I Department nearly a month earlier. After breakfast, Shibi spent the rest of the morning patiently teaching Satoshi how to train his Kikaichu to obey him. This mostly involved Satoshi telling the bugs to hide either in his hair, his clothes, or inside of his body or calling them back out from their hiding places. They started with verbal orders before they progressed to unspoken orders once it was clear that the toddler was quickly getting the hang of directing the bugs. After Satoshi got the hang of ordering his Kikaichu silently, Shibi had him take a break and the two of them headed over to Shoichi's house so Satoshi could show his newly emerged swarm to his grandfather.

While at his grandfather's, Satoshi quietly flipped through the various children's books that used to belong to his father while his father and grandfather quietly discussed the strange differences in Satoshi's Kikaichu. It was while they were examining one specimen that they discovered that the larger Kikaichu had no real interest in eating chakra (though they would if ordered to). That brought up the old debate as to what the clan's Kikaichu had been after when they'd been drawn to Satoshi prior to his chakra pathways being reopened.

Which had them once again speculating on the possibility that the two and a half year old had some type of internal energy that was not chakra that had similar properties to chakra but was as different from chakra as sake was from water. That particular analogy stuck as the Kikaichu who fed off that other energy (except for the one hundred and twenty-eight hatched from Satoshi's magical core) still tended to act drunk if they stuffed themselves on the foreign energy (though the normal Kikaichu would build up a resistance to the alcohol-like nature of Satoshi's second energy over time).

After a long discussion, it was agreed that the confirmation of Satoshi's other internal energy would be treated as a clan secret. They also agreed that explaining the concept of a clan secret to Satoshi would have to wait until he was just a bit older; neither of them realizing that Satoshi had heard and understood the entire conversation through the Kikaichu they'd been examining. Satoshi was thankfully too young to be angry or hurt over the notion of his father withholding information from him, otherwise he might have had a temper tantrum.

The discussion was soon forgotten though as Shibi and Shoichi introduced Satoshi to the concept of playing hide and seek with his Kikaichu as a mock training session to further acclimatize Satoshi to the newly formed bond. Satoshi loved every minute of the game, his giggles often giving him away to the two adults whenever it was his turn to hide.

Lunch that day was an impromptu party with more than half of the clan attending to celebrate the emergence of Satoshi's first swarm. The three older children of the clan (ages ten, thirteen, and fourteen) indulged Satoshi in playing a game of hide and seek followed by a game of tag after the meal even though the two Genin and one Chuunin hadn't played such childish games since obtaining their hitai-ate. Satoshi nearly pouted when Shibi told him it was time for them to go but he perked right up when Shibi told him they were going to take a trip into the clan's special green house to gather wild Kikaichu to add to Satoshi's swarm (Shibi not wishing to take the young toddler to the Forty-Fourth Training Grounds where the clan normally augmented their swarms).

Shibi couldn't help but smile over his son's antics as the small child truly loved the bugs; a rarity in Konoha where most children were raised to avoid or loathe bugs because they were believed to carrying diseases (which some in fact did) or be dangerous (any poisonous or venomous bug or insect).

When they reached the greenhouse, Shibi asked Satoshi to bring out all of the queens that had hatched and the older Aburame was a bit surprised to find there were a total of seven queens when he expected no more than three due to Satoshi's young age and atrophied chakra network. He quickly noted that five of the queens were from the larger, blue Kikaichu; which made sense due to the fact that the alternate energy inside of Satoshi was supposedly limitless (not that it was since Satoshi could suffer from magical exhaustion, it was just far more abundant than his chakra at this point). Gathering up seven small, clay pots (smaller versions of the gourd he usually carried on his back), Shibi had Satoshi coax one queen into each pot before the two of them entered the greenhouse together.

Inside of the greenhouse was a manmade jungle filled with seemingly thousands of different species of bugs and Satoshi stared around in awe as Shibi led him into the heart of the greenhouse. Settling down in a small clearing, Shibi set the seven potted queens down in a semicircle in front of Satoshi and encouraged him to send the rest of his Kikaichu to join the queens. As the destruction bugs trooped from Satoshi's body to the seven pots (the two different types clearly gravitating towards the queens of the same type) wild Kikaichu began drawing closer.

Shibi paid close attention to the types of Kikaichu that were drawn by Satoshi's queens, taking particular note of the venomous types in the event that any of them claimed a queen since few Aburame could host the deadly Kikaichu inside of their bodies (which is why Shibi carried his venomous swarm on his back in a gourd and why Satoshi's first swarm expansion required the queens to be segregated outside of his body). To his relief none of the venomous bugs seemed interested in joining his son's swarm as they eventually drifted off.

Two hours later, when they emerged from the greenhouse, Satoshi was the proud bearer of four different types of Kikaichu; the common type (which were good for tracking and offensive attacks), a burrowing type (often used for infiltration and associated with the earth element), a water type (good at tracking in wet weather and associated with the water element), and a microscopic wingless type (excellent for information gathering as they were near impossible to see). The distribution of the various types between the two distinct colonies that Satoshi had hatched was curious as well; the normal appearing chakra Kikaichu having drawn the common Kikaichu and the burrowing Kikaichu while the larger, blue Kikaichu had drawn all four types – giving Satoshi three tracking colonies (two associated with the larger magical Kikaichu), two burrowing colonies (one each for magical and chakra Kikaichu), and one each of the water and wingless colonies (both of which were associated with his magical Kikaichu) which hinted that Satoshi had a strong affinity towards earth with a secondary affinity towards water.

Shibi carefully sealed and labeled each pot with information on what type of colony was inside; the queens would need at least twenty-four hours to bond with their new drones due to this being the first time his son added wild bugs to his swarm. Satoshi was torn between feeling sad that his bugs would not be with him for a full day but happy because his swarm had now more than tripled in size. The seven new colonies were then taken to Shoichi's house (since Satoshi would most likely be at his grandfather's home when the bonding was complete) before Shibi took him over to the Hyuuga compound for his daily chakra therapy session.

The young Hyuuga that attended to Satoshi's chakra coils that day had good news for the father and son pair; Satoshi's chakra network appeared to be stabilizing as the degradation of his coils between sessions was only half what it usually was. It appeared the introduction of the Kikaichu would be just as helpful as Shibi anticipated they would be and the heir to the Aburame Clan thanked his ancestors for leading him to his son as he still believed the child would have died without a chakra network.

The pair returned home in high spirits that evening and Satoshi was especially affectionate; willingly cuddling with Mayumi for the first time without any encouragement needed from Shibi. Shibi felt content as he watched his adopted son and future wife bonding and he looked forward to the day when they truly became a family (his wedding date still over a year in the future due to clan traditions and the betrothal contract his father had signed with Mayumi's father).

The rest of December passed by in a blur as Shibi finished his training and preparations began for Ōmisoka and Oshōgatsu (Year-end festival/fair and New Year's Day). Satoshi in particular was fascinated by the preparations for the Year-end Fair since he had no earlier memories with which to compare it to. The two and a half year old could often be found seemingly lost in thought as he watched various clan members putting up decorations or preparing various dishes for both New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

In truth, Satoshi was focusing his attention on his Kikaichu as he often sent them out to take in everything that was going on inside of the compound and on rare occasions outside of the compound. The Kikaichu opened up an endless number of opportunities for the young genius to learn about the culture of his new family and the village he'd found himself in. With the help of his Kikaichu in conjunction with his photographic memory, Satoshi's grasp of spoken Japanese (which had already been fairly high for his age) sky rocketed as the tiny bugs snooped through dozens of books and scrolls and eavesdropped on various conversations.

When Shibi discovered that Satoshi was using his bugs to listen to other people's conversations, he sat his son down and explained that it was wrong to invade other people's privacy like that. It was the first time Satoshi had gotten in trouble, though he was not exactly punished since he hadn't known any better. Satoshi apologized before asking when it was okay to allow his Kikaichu to eavesdrop and if it was alright if his bugs read through the books and scrolls in the public library. That of course led to the revelation that Satoshi was quickly learning to read both kanji and romaji at a phenomenal rate thanks to the help of his destruction bugs.

Shibi had known Satoshi was smart (Inoichi had warned him after all) but he hadn't really expected him to adapt so quickly to the bond with his Kikaichu to the point where he could collect information from multiple sources and use it to teach himself how to read in addition to improving his grasp of spoken Japanese. Shibi compromised with Satoshi; his destruction bugs could browse the books in the library on weekends as long as they stuck to the educational and the children's sections. During the week, Satoshi was to focus entirely on his lessons with his grandfather and Kushina and practice keeping his Kikaichu contained within his body to avoid the temptation to eavesdrop.

Inoichi had a good laugh over the entire thing when Shibi told him what had happened; the two of them quickly bonding as friends as they often worked together in the T and I Department now that Shibi had finished his departmental training. That was also the day that Inoichi finally revealed what he'd found in the child's mind the day he'd viewed Satoshi's memories; telling Shibi how the kid had actually spoken to him within his mind and how Satoshi's mind had taken on the appearance of the ruined nursery from the night his parents had died.

Shibi was only mildly surprised by the revelation, having quickly grown used to his adopted son seemingly pulling off the impossible. They discussed the various reasons for the differences with Shibi silently thinking it had something to do with the mysterious energy Satoshi had that was not chakra while Inoichi verbally expressed his belief that it had something to do with the child's eidetic memory; in truth it was a mixture of both.

New Year's Day came and went and Satoshi continued to improve health wise. He was still rather short when compared to other children his age but he'd at least filled out some when compared to how scrawny he'd been when Shibi first found him. His chakra coils had finally stabilized to the point where they no longer tended to shut down if left alone for days at a time but they were also not growing. If Satoshi had been the child of a civilian it would not have been a big deal but as the child of a shinobi adopted into one of the well known shinobi clans it presented a problem because if his chakra network never grew, then he'd never be able to use any of the family jutsu beyond the basics.

Now, Shibi had nothing against civilians and never looked down on those who chose not to become shinobi but he instinctively knew that his adopted son's life would one day depend upon him being able to defend himself. He didn't know how he knew but he'd long since learned to trust his instincts and his instincts were telling him that Satoshi would not survive without those skills. Shibi's instincts therefore led him to begin teaching Satoshi how to recognize and mold his chakra far earlier than most children learned. Shoichi didn't question the reasons behind starting the child's training early, the current Aburame Clan Head trusted his youngest son's instincts, and often expanded upon the chakra lessons while Shibi was at work.

They started out by teaching Satoshi how to meditate to find the spiritual and physical energy inside of him. In the beginning, Satoshi had trouble because he almost always found his magic instead; which was a veritable maelstrom when compared to the calmer spiritual and eager physical energy that made up his chakra. To get passed that, the older two Aburame would have to guide the young boy using their chakra until he could find his chakra coils on his own. The next step, once he could touch the two energies, was to practice combining them to form chakra.

Once again his magic tended to interfere with the process; the wild energy seemingly having a life of its own when compared to chakra. In order to get around the interference, they moved the lessons into the greenhouse where the wild Kikaichu could feast on the wild energy and reduce the levels of the energy present in Satoshi's body which allowed him to draw upon his chakra without any interference. Winter was nearly over by the time Satoshi got the hang of pulling on his chakra and the next step was for him to be able to pull on his chakra consistently even in the presence of the chaotic energy that coexisted with his physical and spiritual energy (though just barely as his magic and chakra were constantly struggling for dominance against each other).

In addition to his chakra lessons, Satoshi was introduced to simple math and Konoha's history to help keep his mind occupied since Shibi and Shoichi quickly learned that a bored Satoshi was a troublesome Satoshi. He didn't play pranks or anything like that but he did tend to get into things he shouldn't (often with the help of his Kikaichu) or wander off to explore places that he did not have permission to enter when he was bored. One such incident had seen the curious child ending up in the clan's research facility after he'd somehow managed to bypass the barrier seal that had been designed to prevent unauthorized entry into the building.

Shibi was pleased that his son felt comfortable enough to show such natural curiosity but couldn't help but miss the days when Satoshi was content to simply sit by his or his father's side. Once the weather began warming up as spring drew near, Shibi began taking Satoshi out to the village parks to introduce him to other children his age. That didn't work out quite as well as he'd hoped it would because Satoshi was exceedingly leery and suspicious of the children his age (he clearly still remembered his cousin constantly pinching and kicking him) but at least he found enjoyment playing on the park equipment.

On April eighth, Kushina was asked to watch over Satoshi for the day as nearly the entire Aburame Clan had been called on to deal with several war-related missions outside of the village and Shoichi was needed for a council meeting; leaving no clan member available to watch over the toddler. Kushina didn't mind and Satoshi considered her something of an older sister after the six months of language lessons she'd been giving to him. The sixteen year old kunoichi took the not quite three year old with her when she went to help Minato train the Genin team he'd been assigned almost a year earlier. The meeting between Satoshi and Team Minato got off to a very rocky start when the nineteen year old Jounin in charge of the team teased Kushina about dragging a child along to a training session; telling the hot tempered kunoichi that she was getting soft.

Satoshi took offense on Kushina's behalf and kicked Minato in the shin to the amusement of Kushina and one of the Genin. Things seemed fairly tame after that as Kushina introduced Satoshi to Namikaze Minato (the Jounin he kicked), Hatake Kakashi (a rather standoffish, gray haired Chuunin), Uchiha Obito (a very boisterous and friendly Genin and the one who'd laughed when Satoshi kicked Minato), and Nohara Rin (the other Genin on the team and a rather sweet kunoichi that found Satoshi adorable). Satoshi was then left in the care of Obito while Kushina and Minato trained with Kakashi and Rin. Satoshi got along with Obito right from the start; the playful eleven year old reminding Satoshi of a man he knew only as Padfoot.

Obito played rock, paper, scissors (after teaching the toddler how to play) and chatted unceasingly with Satoshi for nearly half an hour before he traded places with Rin. Satoshi was less trusting of Rin at first but he eventually warmed up to her when she began entertaining him with fairytales and fables; the young kunoichi was a natural with children and Satoshi absolutely loved learning new things. He pouted when after another half an hour she switched places with Kakashi as she'd been right in the middle of the tale of the Rabbit in the Moon.

He immediately disliked Kakashi as the standoffish boy constantly made disparaging comments under his breath about Rin being weak and Obito being an idiot. Satoshi tried to kick him in the shin as well but Kakashi was rather quick to notice and moved out of the way and so Satoshi resorted to insulting Kakashi in both English and Japanese which frustrated the older prodigy since he didn't understand half the insults. When Obito switched back with Kakashi, Satoshi was glad to see the ten year old go and he didn't hesitate to tell Obito that Kakashi was mean. That of course drew Minato's attention as Rin was finished with her training at the same time (her stamina currently half that of the two boys).

Minato explained that Kakashi just didn't know how to deal with kids and Satoshi stared up at him for a minute before telling him that the ten year old had been insulting Rin and Obito not him and went on to state that the gray-haired boy probably always picked on the other two. That surprised Minato; he knew Kakashi didn't exactly get along with his teammates but he hadn't expected the not-quite three year old to pick up on that after knowing the three teens for less than two hours. Once Kakashi was done sparring with Kushina, the two Genins and one Chuunin were set to working on chakra control exercises under the watchful eyes of Minato while Satoshi began working on pushing chakra through his chakra network under Kushina's supervision.

All four members of Team Minato were a bit surprised when they noticed the toddler molding chakra and Obito groaned and mumbled a half hearted complaint under his breath about meeting yet another prodigy. Kushina was quick to explain to the others about how Satoshi's chakra network had been on the verge of collapse since it was common knowledge among the shinobi of the village due to the Hyuuga and the Aburame clans openly discussing the problem frequently in the presence of other shinobi. Minato, of course, immediately realized the implications and shushed his team when they began speculating on what it meant; telling them that he'd explain it to them later. Training resumed at that point and Satoshi was left to finish his exercises in relative peace.

By the end of the training session, Satoshi had fallen asleep curled up next to Kushina and therefore missed saying goodbye to Rin and Obito. The redhead then delivered the sleeping toddler to Shoichi along with a report of how well the child had gotten along with most of Minato's team. That revelation would eventually lead to Shoichi and Shibi submitting the occasional D ranked mission entailing babysitting the growing toddler with a whispered request to make certain Team Minato or one of the three teams with an Aburame on it was assigned to carry out said missions. Minato, after meeting with Shibi, gladly saw to it that his team was always assigned that particular mission when it came up; providing they were in the village and one of the teams that had the three youngest Aburame (not counting Satoshi) on them didn't snag it first.

Those missions served three purposes; they allowed Satoshi to become familiar with some of the shinobi who would one day be his superiors and potential teammates, they gave Satoshi a chance to socialize with others outside of the clan, and they slowly helped Satoshi to grow comfortable meeting new people. Satoshi was friendly with the young Aburame shinobi and their teammates but he quickly became attached to Obito as the mischievous and perpetually happy Uchiha filled the void in Satoshi's heart due to his missing godfather (not that Satoshi knew Padfoot as such). He remained fairly distant with Kakashi, going so far as to ignore anything the gray haired teen ordered him to do, right up until Kakashi summoned his ninken for the first time in Satoshi's presence.

It was the appearance of Buru (a large black bulldog) that thawed Satoshi's attitude around mid-May. The moment he saw the large dog's back he immediately thought it was Padfoot (much like that first time he'd mistaken Kushina for his mother) and he'd raced up and thrown his arms around the ninken and babbled off in English about how much he'd missed him. There was a tense moment among the preteens as Buru growled at the unexpected if friendly attack but Kakashi was quick to order the large ninken to calm down. It was about that time that Satoshi finally got a good look at Buru's face and his happy countenance crumbled as he realized he hadn't found Padfoot.

The three young shinobi were then at a complete loss as Satoshi began bawling for the first time ever in their presence; they'd seen him happy, they'd seen him serious, and they'd seen him irritated but they'd never before seen him break down and cry. Thinking that maybe Buru had scared the kid when he growled, Kakashi released the summons only for Satoshi to start crying harder and louder. In the end, it took summoning all three of his current ninken partners to calm the toddler. It was the still puppyish Bisuke that managed to draw the child out of his grief by licking his face. Satoshi remained subdued for the duration of the mission though, often crying silently as he stared at Buru with haunted eyes and clung to Bisuke.

Satoshi remained withdrawn for well over a week after that, his usual boundless energy and ready smiles missing. His growing depression worried Shibi as Satoshi had never been quite so despondent (not even when he had first been found abandoned in the forest). Eventually, Satoshi was slowly drawn out of his depression by the familiarity of his day to day routine and after a few days his previous despondency was nothing but a memory. The only marked change in his behavior was the cessation of his battle of wills with Kakashi as he stopped giving the ten year old the cold shoulder; though he still didn't like it when the gray haired Chuunin insulted Obito or Rin.

By Satoshi's third birthday, the small toddler had a good grasp on how to form chakra out of his spiritual and physical energy and his lessons progressed to include the various hand seals that were used to mold chakra in order to form various jutsu. He wasn't actually learning any techniques yet, just the basics of manipulating his chakra in preparation for learning how to perform a jutsu. He was also learning how to shift his chakra through his network to specific locations instead of just flooding his entire network with chakra. To help him learn how to pool his chakra, Satoshi was introduced to the leaf concentration exercise where he was required to hold a leaf to his forehead with nothing but chakra.

It took him about three weeks to manage to stick a leaf to his head for a full ten seconds. The next goal was to hold the leaf in place for a full minute. Once he achieved that, he would go on to learn how to hold a leaf to the back of his hands, his elbows, his nose, his bellybutton, the back of his neck, the middle of his back, on both sides of his knees, the tops of his feet, and finally the soles of his feet. The moment he could hold a leaf in place for a full minute in each one of those locations, he was required to learn how to hold two leaves in place in two different locations at the same time; effectively learning how to split his focus. About that time he also began learning basic katas to go with the taijutsu stances he'd learned along with a series of exercises geared to slowly increase his speed, stamina, and flexibility.

Around the one year anniversary of Satoshi's adoption into the Aburame Clan, Shoichi and Shibi began discussing the possibility of sending Satoshi to the shinobi academy two years early. The reason for this was due to how quickly Satoshi was advancing in his academic lessons and his growing competency in chakra manipulation. An appointment with the Hyuuga on December first, finalized the decision as it was discovered that Satoshi's chakra coils had nearly doubled in size thanks to the chakra exercises he'd been performing for more than six months. His Kikaichu colonies had also more than doubled in size during the intervening months, his swarm now consisting of around nine hundred bugs with two thirds of them associated with his chaotic energy and the other third closely tied to his chakra.

The next eight months were then dedicated to preparing Satoshi to enter the shinobi academy (the Hokage approving the early enrollment due to the on-going war and the need for more able bodied shinobi on the frontlines); the only break in training occurring in April when Shibi and Mayumi were finally married. They focused on physical conditioning, chakra building and control exercises, controlling his Kikaichu, and handling weapons.

Shortly after introducing Satoshi to the three main throwing weapons shinobi often fought with (the kunai, the shuriken, and the senbon), they discovered the toddler's dislike for the shuriken as his hands were so small that he tended to slice his fingers and palms open when handling the four bladed throwing stars. He had no problems with the kunai since he could easily grip the handle though he tended to hit low once he learned how to throw the knives but he absolutely excelled with the large throwing needles; the thin metal rods perfect for his little hands to grasp.

On Friday, August thirty-first (exactly one month after his fourth birthday), Shibi took Satoshi to the shinobi academy so that the four year old could take the placement exams to determine which class he would be joining (and therefore the earliest date he could attempt to take the Genin Exam). Shibi had to strictly order Satoshi not to set his Kikaichu free while inside of the academy for the duration of the test in order to prevent anyone from accusing the young prodigy of cheating his way into early enrollment. To Satoshi's surprise and pleasure, Genma was the Jounin to administer his assessment tests which helped put the four year old at ease (Shibi having pulled in a favor to have his old teammate give the test to help put his son at ease even though the Jounin usually worked with older Genin and Chuunin looking to increase their skills and knowledge).

Three hours and seven tests later (including a physical demonstration of his current taijutsu levels and his competency with shinobi weapons), Satoshi was informed that he'd be joining those students that were just entering their final year on Monday the third; meaning that it would be almost a year before he could even attempt to take the Genin Exam and that his classmates were all between four and six years older than him. That suited Satoshi just fine as he still didn't feel comfortable around children his own age.

* * *

**Translations:** Japanese to English

Hai – yes  
Hitai-ate – forehead protector worn by shinobi in the Naruto-verse  
Ōmisoka – New Year's Eve (also called the Year-end Fair)  
Oshōgatsu – New Year's Celebration (Jan 1-3)  
Otousan/tousan – father  
Satoshi – boy's name meaning wise, fast learner  
Shoichi – boy's name meaning flying son (usually a first born son)  
Taijutsu – hand to hand combat

**Notes:**

* Rin's last name – according to Narutopedia, Rin's last name has been given as Nohara though I do not know how accurate that information is. After much debate, I have decided to use the provided last name since it was far easier than coming up with my own last name for Rin.

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**AN: **_For those of you who don't follow my Author's Page, the reason I was not posting as promised was due to another hard drive failure; this time it was my main drive that crashed on me and not my document drive; so I didn't not lose anything but a chapter worth of edit's that I had made. During the time I was without internet (because the old XP drive I snagged from my husband's old PC had a conniption fit over my on board Ethernet, video card, & sound card), I at least was able to edit stuff and write a bit more; so I've got tons of chapters that are ready to be posted._

_I meant to start posting just as soon as I was back online but I had thousands of e-mails I needed to get through, bookmarks to recapture, and a dozen and one other things that just had to be done (like updating my Firefox dictionary so it would stop telling me I was spelling everything wrong; that was annoying). From this point forward, I will endeavor to post the minimum one chapter per day that I had previously promised as soon as I finish setting up all of my settings and whatnot that were lost when my drive crashed; that includes digging out all of my program discs so that I can reinstall the rest of my programs. As before, the story being updated will vary from day to day._

_Lastly, I want to thank everyone who read, reviewed, favorited, and followed this story and the other new ones I recently posted. And while I've not finished reading all of the reviews I've received because I just haven't had the time, I do appreciate each and every one. I will try to go back and respond or at least read them just as soon as I have time. ~ Jenn_


	3. Trials of a Genin

**Disclaimer:** _All HP characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies and all Naruto characters are the property of Masashi Kishimoto. This is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites._

**Warnings:** _Mild to moderate violence, character death, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), some moderate Dumbledore bashing (he's more manipulative than evil but mostly just stubborn), and who knows what else. _

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

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Chapter 2: Trials of a Genin

Satoshi had difficulty sitting still as he waited for class to start that day; he'd been attending the academy for ten months now and today would mark his first attempt at passing the Genin Exam. He'd spent the last nine and a half months working hard to train his body and his mind and he wanted nothing more than to make his parents and grandfather proud of him. The first few months had been especially difficult as the older children had avoided him like the plague or picked on him because of his age, his size, and his Kikaichu.

The only reason why the bullying never turned physical was because the instructors kept a close eye on Satoshi to insure that no harm came to him outside of normal training; none more so than his father's old teammate Genma (even though the Jounin was not one of Satoshi's actual instructors). The verbal abuse was bad enough though and there had been more than a couple of times when Satoshi had been on the verge of quitting the academy because it stirred up bad memories for the young Aburame.

Obito and Kakashi were the ones that actually helped him deal with the negative attention; Obito long used to being called names and put down (by more than half of his peers) and Kakashi had gone through something very similar when he'd started the academy at about the same age as Satoshi. By the end of his third month at the academy, Satoshi began ignoring the bullies and proved to his instructors (if not his classmates) why he'd earned his place in the academy two years early and attended what could potentially be a graduating class.

Around the second anniversary of his adoption, Satoshi actually made several friends among his classmates as he continuously proved that he wasn't getting special treatment and had actually earned his right to be in their class. His intelligence tended to intimidate the older children but his open and friendly personality (once he got to know a person) had more than made up for it. The fact that his taijutsu and weapon skills were only slightly above average for his age group helped them to relate to the not quite prodigy though his chakra control far exceeded that of most Genin due to the year and a half of extensive training his father and grandfather had put him through in order to help him expand his chakra coils.

The rest of his time at the academy had been relatively stress free aside from the usual school related worries such as completing homework assignments on time and passing various assessment tests at the end of each week.

Satoshi had, by this time, adopted the Aburame Clan's preferred mode of dress which included; dark sunglasses with rectangular lenses that completely hid his green eyes (much to Kushina and Rin's despair), loose fitting long pants, a comfortably snug long sleeved turtle neck, and a high necked, loose fitting hoodless jacket that hid the bottom half of his face and hung down to his knees. To keep his hair out of his eyes (since his hair was impossible to tame) Satoshi wore a headband tied around his forehead that also happened to completely hide the lightning bolt scar upon his brow.

Unlike the rest of the clan, who tended to favor muted shades of gray, green, and brown; Satoshi's pants, shirt, and headband were a shade of red so dark they appeared black while his jacket was the color of freshly spilt blood (almost the exact shade of his biological mother's hair). He also wore black opened toed boots that came up to his knees which he tucked the bottom of his pants into instead of wrapping the hems in bandages since he could never get the bandages to sit properly. The loose clothing helped to hide his pencil thin, wiry frame which made many people underestimate him since they couldn't predict his movements or gauge his true weight and body type (something that he'd learned to use to his advantage in a fight).

The arrival of their instructor, a twenty-some year old Chuunin by the name of Fuumi Yutaka, brought Satoshi back to the present and he sat up just a little straighter. Beside him, Hyuuga Tokuma (one of Satoshi's friends) rolled his eyes at Satoshi's behavior while Toriichi Kumade (another of Satoshi's friends) snickered in amusement. Behind them, Mitarashi Anko (not quite a friend of the three but friendly with Satoshi) huffed and kicked Kumade's chair which made Satoshi duck more of his face below the high collar of his jacket to hide the grin on his face when Kumade mocked growled at the kunoichi in response. As Yutaka-sensei brought the class to order, Satoshi focused his attention on their teacher as she passed out the written portion of the exam.

Satoshi was one of the first students to finish the test thirty-eight minutes later and he spent another ten minutes going over his answers to make certain he hadn't skipped any questions or put down a wrong answer by mistake. Yutaka-sensei collected his test two minutes after he set his pencil down and quietly directed him to head out to the practice field where they were holding the next section of the test to join the others who'd already finished. While he waited for the rest of his classmates to join him, Satoshi began warming up so that he'd be ready the moment they started the taijutsu test. He was actually nervous about this test because while he knew his stances and katas perfectly he wasn't a very strong taijutsu user because of his height, weight, and age.

When Midori Kusaha (their other regular academy instructor) arrived to administer the taijutsu tests shortly after the last of his classmates joined the group outside (Yutaka-sensei remaining inside to grade the written portion), Satoshi was relieved to find that he only had to last two minutes in the ring against one of the four Genin that had been selected to help with the test. If he'd been required to knock one of them out of the ring, he knew there would have been a greater chance that he would fail this portion of the test.

While Kusaha-sensei was explaining the rules, Satoshi sized up the four Genin in an effort to determine the best strategy to use on each one and silently wished that Kakashi, Obito, or Rin could have been selected to help during the exams. He knew the only reason they hadn't been selected was because Team Minato was currently out of the village on yet another mission. Well, that and the fact that all three of them were officially Chuunin now.

"When I call your name, step forward into the marked ring indicated to face your opponent," Kusaha-sensei announced as he finished explaining the rules. "Aburame Satoshi you'll be facing Rokushou Aoi in ring one, Akame Mogusa your opponent is…"

Satoshi didn't hear who Mogusa would be facing or the names of his other classmates that had been called as the teal-haired male Genin he was to face made a disparaging comment and began complaining the moment Satoshi stepped up to the ring.

"A midget? I have to fight a little midget? Oh come on, no one said babysitting was part of this mission."

Irked by the casual dismissal in the teen's tone and his rather rude comments, Satoshi narrowed his eyes behind his glasses but didn't bother replying as he fell into a defensive stance while waiting for Kusaha-sensei to start the match. If not for the constant drilling by his father and grandfather over the past two and a half years to always control his temper and the advice Obito and Kakashi had given him in his early months at the academy, Satoshi might have responded verbally to the insults. As it was, he used his Kikaichu to drown out Rokushou's diatribe in order to make it easier to ignore the teen's attempts to rile him.

All he had to do to pass the test, was stay in the ring for the full two minutes and avoid taking more than five hits to pass; if he managed to land a few hits of his own during that time it would only add to his score.

The whistle blew signaling the start of the match and Satoshi allowed the teen to make the first move; waiting until the last second to duck under the teen's high kick. Light on his feet and quick as a whip, Satoshi dodged most every attack the Genin made and blocked those he couldn't while he ignored each taunt the teen vocalized. It was rather hard to pay attention to the other boy's words when you can't hear the other person's voice because your ears are stuffed full of humming beetles, after all. Satoshi knew that he was irritating the teen he was facing though, because it showed on the teen's face and in his attacks while Satoshi's face remained blank, unreadable, and well hidden behind the tall collar of his jacket and dark sunglasses.

At the minute and a half minute mark, Satoshi changed tactics and instead of keeping far out of range of the teen, he began working his way in closer all the while continuing to dodge and block Rokushou's angry attacks. Just seconds before the whistle blew to signal the end of the match, Satoshi lunched his only offensive move of the entire match and sucker punched Rokushou in the crotch as hard as he could; dropping the teen to his knees. The muffled guffaws and clapping in the background let Satoshi know that at least a few of his friends and classmates had been watching and listening to the teen insult him. As the whistle blew, Satoshi dispelled the Kikaichu blocking his ears and leaned down to address the Genin.

"I may be small but so is an exploding tag; a lack of size doesn't always indicate a lack of power."

"That was a rather low blow; don't you think Satoshi-kun?" Kumade inquired with a laugh as he pulled Satoshi over to where the rest of his friends had been watching the matches the moment the not quite five year old stepped out of the ring.

"Rokushou deserved it," Anko declared as she scowled at the teen in question. "I'm the only one here allowed to call Sashi-chan a runt. How is it that you managed not to let him get to you though? If it had been me I'd have walloped him but good for saying half the things he said to you both before and during the match."

"He was talking?" Satoshi asked innocently which set his friends off a second time as they all recalled how easily Satoshi had ignored (and therefore infuriated) the bullies in the class after a while.

"What did you say to him before you left the ring?" Tokuma asked as the next four matches began.

"You need to ask?" Tatami Iwashi (a nine year old that had joined Satoshi's group of friends just two months earlier) countered incredulously. "Come on Tokuma-senpai, you know he always gives the 'exploding tag' analogy when someone picks on him because he's short!"

"True," Anko agreed as one of the civilian students was knocked out of the ring; ending the girl's match against the only female Genin present (whose name Satoshi had not caught)

Satoshi grinned up at his friends before he returned his attention to the rest of the matches; paying close attention to the three Genin he had not faced since he'd seen most of his classmates spar over the course of the year. He also paid close attention to the matches that his friends fought in, cheering for each of them as they managed to remain in the ring for the full two minutes and in most cases land at least two solid hits (or three to four times more in Tokuma and Anko's cases) on the Genin they faced. Two hours later (after the entire class had taken the taijutsu test), they were led over to the target range where they were required to demonstrate their competency with kunai and shuriken while the Genin were dismissed.

That test was only slightly better for Satoshi as he wasn't allowed to use senbon and while he no longer cut his hands whenever he handled shuriken he still disliked using the throwing stars. He still managed to pass since his kunai throws were textbook perfect while his shuriken hits were about half on target and half near to target. Once they were finished with their target test, each student was dismissed and told to return to the classroom after lunch to collect their graded written test and take the final test; the ninjutsu test. Satoshi waited off to one side for the rest of his friends to take their test before their entire group headed over to the tree where they'd been sharing their afternoon meals together for close to seven months now.

Their meal was interrupted midway through by Rokushou Aoi who attempted to threaten Satoshi with a beating for embarrassing him like that in front of an audience. Satoshi's friends were quick to stand up for him though and the Genin soon stormed off in a tizzy while Kumade warned Satoshi to watch his back because it looked like Rokushou was the type to carry a grudge. The rest of their meal passed peacefully enough and as the five of them headed back inside to their classroom, Satoshi's earlier excitement returned due to the knowledge that he only had one more test to pass in order to gain his hitai-ate.

"You're vibrating again," Anko teased as the five of them entered the classroom. "I can practically hear your Kikaichu humming with excitement as well."

"I can't help it," Satoshi replied as he gave the young kunoichi a wide grin. "Only one more test and I can make otousan, okaasan, and ojiisan proud of me."

"I'm certain they are already proud of you, Satoshi-kun," Kumade murmured as they slipped into their seats and waited for Yutaka-sensei and Kusaha-sensei to arrive.

Satoshi just shrugged uncomfortably, he still hadn't told his friends that he was adopted since he didn't like to think of the year he'd spent with the Dursleys because it wasn't a very pleasant memory. It was his only unreasonable fear; that if he ever failed to be a good shinobi or if he disappointed his adopted family, then he'd be sent back to his aunt and uncle. Logically, he knew his father loved him too much to send him away but that didn't stop Satoshi from being afraid of disappointing both of his parents and his grandfather. Before he could sink too deeply into his worries, their instructors arrived and their written tests were handed back to them; Satoshi was pleased to see he'd gotten a perfect score (no real surprise given his eidetic memory).

"Please take your seats and quiet down. In just a few minutes, we will be calling each of you individually into the next room to take the final portion of the Genin Exam; the ninjutsu test," Yutaka announced after she called the class to order. "While you are waiting your turn, we ask that you remain seated and keep the noise to a minimum so as not to distract those who are testing. After you have demonstrated your grasp of the three basic academy jutsu we will let you know whether or not you have passed the Graduation Exam and earned your hitai-ate. Those of you who do not pass will, of course, be offered another opportunity to pass when we administer the exam again in six months; giving you time to review those areas in which you need improvement."

"We'll be going in alphabetical order as usual; starting with Aburame Satoshi," Kusaha declared as Yutaka slipped into the side room where the testing was to take place.

"Good luck, Satoshi-kun," Iwashi murmured as Satoshi climbed shakily to his feet.

The rest of his friends wished him luck as well as his feet mechanically moved to take him across the room as a lump formed in his stomach. It had been said that the ninjutsu test was the one test to pass in order to graduate and become a Genin and that more than one hopeful student had failed because they couldn't perform one of the three standard jutsu that were taught at the academy. Satoshi knew he could perform all three; his entire class had been endlessly drilled in those particular three jutsu for the last four months. He just worried that his growing nervousness would affect his chakra control and that he'd flunk the exam and therefore fail to pass the Genin Exam.

"Relax, Satoshi-kun; just do the best you can," Yutaka murmured the moment he stepped inside of the classroom. "I know you know how to perform all three jutsu and this portion of the test is just a formality."

Satoshi nodded at his sensei of the past year as he stepped into the painted circle where Kusaha indicated he should stand. He was then told to perform the Kawarimi no Jutsu with a log that was sitting in another circle some eight feet away and then switch back. Once he'd done that, he was asked to perform the Bunshin no Jutsu with a stipulation that he form at least two clones minimum – Satoshi created five because he was so nervous he poured a bit too much chakra into the jutsu and didn't limit his number. Lastly, Satoshi was asked to transform into a person of his choice (preferably someone well known and easily recognized) using the Henge no Jutsu and Satoshi chose to henge into Kushina since she was both familiar to him and well known amongst the academy staff.

"Congratulations, Satoshi-kun; you have passed the Genin Exam and are the first of your class to gain your hitai-ate," Yutaka announced with a smile once he released the henge.

"I passed?" Satoshi parroted uncertainly as Kusaha handed him one of the blue hitai-ate from the box on the table that Yutaka was sitting at. A huge grin then split his face as he repeated, "I passed!"

As he headed for the classroom door, Satoshi couldn't help but overhear the comment that Kusaha made to Yutaka, "You do realize that you just passed the youngest ever student, ne? Not even the Hatake prodigy graduated before he turned five."

"He earned it and it would not have been fair to hold him back…" Yutaka started to reply before her voice was cut off by the closing of the door as Satoshi entered the classroom.

Grin still plastered on his face, Satoshi's eyes immediately searched out his friends as he proudly held up his shiny new forehead protector. A round of applause, cat calls, and whistles broke out from his friends and those who were friendly with the not quite five year old genius. Satoshi practically bounced back to his seat, his Kikaichu humming quite loudly in response to his extreme joy at passing. He spent the rest of the class period alternating between staring at his hitai-ate, giving encouragement to his friends, and applauding as each of them passed as easily as he had.

By the time the last person had been tested, more than three-quarters of their class had successfully passed the exam. Before they were dismissed, they were advised to return to the classroom one last time at eleven o'clock sharp on Monday, June seventeenth, to receive their team assignments. The moment they were dismissed, Satoshi was out the door in a flash; his little legs carrying him through the halls of the academy and down the stairs as excitement filled him from head to toe.

He hit the front doors so hard that they snapped open with a bang and hit the outer wall hard, startling more than one waiting parent. Satoshi didn't care though; his eyes were too busy searching for his father amongst those waiting for their children. It only took him an instant to locate both of his parents and his grandfather and the grin on Satoshi's face grew so wide it practically split his face in half as he bolted towards his family. He never saw the hand that tried to snag the back of his jacket and missed (due to how fast he was running) but both his father and grandfather noted the attempt and frowned.

Two seconds later, Satoshi was in his father's arms proudly displaying his newly awarded hitai-ate; his green eyes sparkling brightly in triumph behind his dark glasses. While Shibi and Mayumi congratulated Satoshi, Shoichi marked the scowling teen that had attempted to waylay Satoshi with a queen from his swarm so they could keep track of the disgruntled shinobi. Satoshi's friends joined them five minutes later along with their parents and words of praise were offered all around before they split up to return to their various homes to celebrate their success.

Unseen by Satoshi, Kumade passed a folded note to Shibi informing the older Aburame about Rokushou Aoi's lunchtime threats after Satoshi's taijutsu exam; the older teen long used to keeping an extra eye on the excitable four (nearly five) year old for the older man.

The Aburame Clan celebrated Satoshi's success late into the night (after Shibi took Satoshi to register his new status at the Hokage's Tower); Satoshi officially the youngest Aburame to pass the Genin Exam on the first try. There might have been a grumble or two from Shibi's older brother, Shikuro (who'd spent most of the past two and a half years out on the front lines of the war), about Satoshi not being a true Aburame but they mostly went ignored since no one else in the clan felt the same way.

Satoshi heard the comments, thanks to his excited Kikaichu wandering, but he paid them no mind since he hadn't really gotten to know the man all that well because the man was almost never around. The almost five year old also knew that the rivalry between the two brothers was fairly fierce since Shikuro had been passed over as clan heir by their father due to Shibi being a natural born leader with an even temperament while Shikuro tended to be a touch selfish and had a bit of a mean streak when angry or drunk (something that was frowned upon by the clan in general).

The rest of the weekend Satoshi spent buzzing around the Aburame Compound in high spirits as he speculated who his new teammates would be and who would be assigned as his team's Jounin sensei. On Sunday, Team Minato returned from their mission looking exhausted but unharmed. All three Chuunin (Obito and Rin had received field promotions just a few months earlier) and the perpetually cheerful Jounin congratulated Satoshi on passing the graduation exam and gaining his hitai-ate.

Obito would pull him aside later and quietly explain about the last test he would need to pass; the boisterous teen wishing to insure that Satoshi didn't get sent back to the academy after all of his hard work. Obito then swore Satoshi to secrecy because the final test was supposed to be a surprise for all Genin and the teen didn't want the newly minted Genin to get in trouble.

Satoshi was up before dawn on the seventeenth and Shibi sent him to run laps around the compound to burn off his excess energy; the older shinobi amused by his son's excitement and saddened because Satoshi didn't quite understand how dangerous being a shinobi was. At least he knew his son would not end up on the front lines of the war anytime soon due to his age (the Hokage had already promised that his son's team would be remaining close to home to take care of a good number of D Rank missions so as to free up a more experienced team to send out to the field).

By the time Satoshi was called in for breakfast, he was no longer bouncing off the walls and he'd worked up quite a sweat from the number of laps he'd run over the hour and a half he'd been outside. He was still filled to the brim with excitement though and his father's and mother's Kikaichu (Mayumi having gone through a similar ceremony to the one Satoshi went through when he was adopted just before she married Shibi) easily picked up on the endless swirls of his elation and anticipation floating in the air.

To pass the time until he was due to arrive at the academy for his team assignment, Satoshi took a shower, read through a pair of jutsu scrolls that his father had given him for passing his exams, and completed the English writing assignment Kushina had given him at the start of the week.

At ten-thirty, his mother finally told him to get ready to go so she could walk him to the academy and by ten-thirty-five Satoshi was dressed and ready to go with his new utility pouch (a gift from his parents for passing the Genin Exam) hooked onto his belt over his left rear pocket beneath his jacket and a senbon holder secured to his right thigh. His hitai-ate was secured just above his left knee where it was half hidden by the hem of his jacket (he'd not wanted to give up his usual bandana because it was a birthday gift from Obito a year earlier and he couldn't tie the forehead protector to an arm one handed so he'd gone with his leg instead).

His mother smiled affectionately at him the moment she saw him and passed him the bento she'd made him for lunch as they headed out of the Compound together. Iwashi, Kumade, and Tokuma were waiting outside of the academy when Satoshi arrived ten minutes before eleven and Satoshi hugged his mother good bye before he disappeared into the building with his friends. His earlier excitement was now mingling with slight nervousness over who he'd be paired with and who would be assigned as his new sensei.

Once seated inside the classroom, Satoshi could barely sit still as he practically glued his eyes to the door to watch for their Chuunin instructors in an effort to avoid staring at the clock. He endured much teasing from his friends over his continued excitement but he didn't mind too terribly much.

The moment Yutaka and Kusaha entered the room, Satoshi went taut and practically stopped breathing as they brought the class to order and congratulated them all once more on passing the exam. They were then given a short lecture on the responsibilities that came with their hitai-ate and how important it was that they conduct themselves with dignity because they were now representatives of Konoha. Yutaka-sensei then began calling out the various team assignments.

"Team One: Akame Mogusa, Mitarashi Anko, and Touji Mizuki; your Jounin instructor will be Orochimaru," Yutaka announced and Satoshi breathed a sigh of relief both at not being paired with Mizuki (whom Satoshi had never really liked because he'd been the most persistent of the bullies that had picked on him) and because he wouldn't have Orochimaru as his sensei (he had always felt uneasy around the Snake Sannin for some inexplicable reason). Many of the other new Genin were jealous over Team One being trained by one of the three legendary Sannin though. "Team Two: Fujita Kaori, Inoue Kitou, and Toriichi Kumade; your Jounin instructor will be Uchiha Yashiro."

Satoshi had a small pout on his face this time as that was now two of his friends assigned to different teams and he missed hearing who was assigned to team number three. He probably would have missed those that had been assigned to team number four too if not for the fact that he heard his name called right after the team number was announced. "Team Four: Aburame Satoshi, Hagane Kotetsu, and Kamizuki Izumo; your Jounin instructor will be Uzumaki Kushina."

A frown marred Satoshi's face over his newly assigned teammates since he really didn't know either boy all that well but he at least found comfort in the knowledge that Kushina would be his Jounin instructor as he was very fond of the redhead. There was some murmuring amongst the older Genin present due to Kushina's reputation as the Akai Chishio no Habanero and her skills in fuuinjutsu, kenjutsu, and taijutsu were well known throughout the village.

That wasn't even taking into consideration her hidden status as the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi or her ability to manifest and manipulate her chakra outside of her body. More than one of his classmates were jealous of their team due to their sensei (much as they'd been of Team One) but Satoshi didn't even notice as he turned his attention back to the front of the room to find out whose teams the rest of his friends were on.

"Team Five will be Matsumoto Dajimu, Okada Kanpou, and Tatami Iwashi and your Jounin sensei is Mimura Hamaki."

The next eight teams were all classmates that Satoshi never really got to know that were assigned to various Jounin that Satoshi never heard of. He did note that all four of his friends had each been placed on different teams; Tokuma had been placed on an existing team that had lost a member during a mission (the boy in question had been permanently disabled during a confrontation with a group of older Iwa shinobi).

It was five minutes after twelve by the time the final team had been announced and they were advised to spend lunch time getting to know their new teammates (if they didn't already know them) and return to the classroom by one-thirty to meet their sensei. Tokuma, on the other hand, was advised to meet his new team out front since he had been assigned to an existing team.

Satoshi watched his friends all disperse and held back the sniffle he felt creeping down his nose at the thought that he'd not be able to spend much time with his friends after this (knowing their individual teams would be training and doing missions most every day). All of his earlier enthusiasm gone, Satoshi gathered up his bento and trudged out to the tree where he and his friends had taken to eating during the school year; completely forgetting that he'd been advised to spend the time getting to know his new teammates. He'd barely opened his lunch box when a shadow fell over him and Satoshi looked up to find two older boys grinning down at him.

"Sorry to bother you but we seem to be missing the last member of our team and we wondered if you've seen him around," the boy wearing his hitai-ate like a bandana over his entire head began.

"We'd really appreciate the help, 'cause it's bad form to lose a teammate before we even perform our first mission as a team you know," the other boy added as he nodded his head, his spiky black hair (which stuck up worse than Satoshi's) bobbing wildly with the movement.

Satoshi blinked up at the two ten year olds that had been given the title of class clowns long before he joined the Academy and couldn't help the soft snort of amusement that escaped him. Ducking his head slightly, to hide the small smirk tugging at his lips, Satoshi innocently replied, "I heard that he ran in fear for his life after being assigned to your team. Have you checked at the gate to see if he managed to escape completely?"

"Izumo-kun, I suddenly have a very bad feeling that we're in serious trouble now."

"I think Yutaka-sensei and Kusaha-sensei might have finally found a way to pay us back for the last four years of pranks that we'd played on them."

"I think maybe Aburame-kun has been holding out on us these past ten months," the spiky haired boy added with a laugh as he dropped down to sit a few feet away from Satoshi. "Name's Hagane Kotetsu, troublemaker extraordinaire and this here is Kamizuki Izumo, my partner in crime and pranks. Together we're the Chuunin instructors' worst nightmare."

"You might just be right… he's pretty sneaky; you remember how he laid Rokushou out with a single hit on Friday after doing nothing but blocking and dodging for nearly the entire two minutes of his test?" Izumo countered as he dropped down beside Kotetsu and leaned back on his hands as he sprawled his legs out in front of him. "And you are Aburame Satoshi; class genius in all but taijutsu and shuriken and well known for having selective hearing when the mood strikes you."

"You two are weird," Satoshi declared with a giggle as he felt some of his worry and depression fading due to the antics of the two ten year olds.

"We aim to please," Kotetsu bragged.

"Actually, we just wanted to cheer you up," Izumo confessed. "We noticed how down you were at not being placed on a team with one of your friends and we couldn't help but feel your pain because I don't think either of us would have been happy to be split up either."

"Arigatou," Satoshi murmured with a light blush at how easily the two Genin had deduced his feelings.

"No worries, we're good. At least until our sensei shows up," Izumo assured him. "I've heard she's got quite the temper."

"Kushina-neechan isn't that bad," Satoshi declared with a laugh as he dug into his bento for a carrot stick. "She only gets mad when you tease her about her hair or if you call her weak because she's a girl."

"Kushina-sensei is your sister?" Kotetsu choked out in disbelief.

"No, but I've known her since I was two and she used to help me with my lessons and watch me when ojiisan couldn't watch me and there were no Genin teams available to babysit me."

"Have you ever seen her spar?"

"Lots of times; she often helped train Minato-san's team whenever she was keeping an eye on me. It's fun to watch her spar with Kakashi-san because he doesn't like getting beat by a girl all the time."

"Have you ever sparred with Kushina-sensei?" Izumo asked as he shook off the shock of learning that Satoshi frequently interacted with some of the more famous shinobi in the village (Kushina, Minato, and Kakashi all very well known for one reason or another).

"No. She helped me with my stances and with my chakra control exercises though. I only ever sparred with otousan or ojiisan before starting the academy and they never really sparred with me; they just went through the motions with me so I could learn the forms and practice blocking. They always worried I'd get hurt because I'm so small."

"Is that why you're so good at dodging and dirty hits?"

Satoshi blushed over the second reference to his low sucker punch during his taijutsu test even as he answered, "Hai, otousan always says that there's no such thing as a fair fight and that the best way to avoid getting hurt is to avoid getting hit."

"Sounds like good advice to me," Kotetsu declared with a grin. "I've got a question though; you're very good at throwing senbon and kunai… why do you always have trouble with shuriken?"

"My hands were too small to hold them right when otousan and ojiisan first started teaching me how to throw shuriken," Satoshi replied as he showed off his lightly scarred and calloused palms and fingers from the numerous times he'd sliced his hands open when he was first learning how to handle and throw the four pointed stars. "And now I just don't care for them so I don't really practice much with them."

"Ah… that makes sense; I don't think I'd care for shuriken either if I'd cut myself deep enough and often enough to leave that many scars behind."

"How come you two always play pranks on the instructors?" Satoshi asked to change the subject.

"Well, it started out as pranks on the older kids in our first year because they were always picking on us younger kids but after a while it got to be too easy so we started targeting the teachers to challenge ourselves. We got caught all the time in the beginning but after a while they only blamed us out of reflex not because they had any proof that we were the ones pranking them."

"That and after so many years of listening to the same lessons over and over again we got bored real easily and needed something to do to occupy our hands and minds," Izumo added as he shared a grin with Kotetsu.

"What about you? What kind of things do you do when you get bored?"

"I'm not allowed to be bored," Satoshi admitted with yet another blush. "Otousan says I'm too troublesome when I'm bored."

"Oh ho, I think you were right earlier when you said he was holding out on us, Kotetsu-kun! Now you have to tell us what kind of trouble you get into when you're bored, Aburame-kun."

"You can call me Satoshi. And I get into things I'm not supposed to or wander off into places I should be avoiding. Or my Kikaichu get restless and start reading things they shouldn't. Otousan says I'm far too curious for my own good."

"Does that mean the reason you skipped so many levels when you joined the academy was because your family had drilled you endlessly on the boring lectures to keep you busy?"

"Not exactly…" Satoshi hedged, not really wanting to admit to having a photographic memory since it wasn't quite common knowledge though all of his friends knew.

Before either of his new teammates could ask another question, the bell signaling the end of lunch rang and Satoshi glanced over to the Academy in surprise as he hadn't realized how quickly time had been passing. He quickly packed up his mostly untouched lunch and climbed to his feet while Kotetsu tried to pull Izumo to his feet only for the other boy to pull him over back onto the ground. Satoshi laughed at their antics and then hid the mischievous smile that crept onto his face as he trotted a few feet away from the two older boys and casually called back over his shoulder.

"By the way, I suppose I should warn you; Kushina-neechan can't stand it when people are late and she firmly believes that if you aren't five minutes early for an appointment, then you're at least ten minutes late. She gets real scary if people show up even one minute late."

Satoshi then took off running as the two pre-teens yelped when they tripped over each other in their rush to get back to the classroom, tangling themselves up further each time they moved. He had nearly schooled his face into a semblance of innocence by the time the two of them reached the classroom (with just seconds to spare before one o-clock) though if one could see through his glasses they'd see his green eyes dancing with laughter as he noted how disheveled the two older boys were.

Kumade gave Satoshi a questioning look from where he was sitting with his new team as Kotetsu and Izumo slid into place on either side of Satoshi after Izumo had purposefully transplanted Satoshi into the middle chair of their table. Satoshi gave his friend a smile and a wave to show he was okay and Kumade seemed to relax a bit even as he glared hard at Satoshi's two teammates; as if to warn them to play nice with Satoshi – _or else_.

"That was a sneaky trick, Satoshi-kun," Izumo whispered with a soft laugh after he saluted Kumade to let the other ten year old know the message had been received and understood.

"If I didn't know any better I'd say he intentionally pranked us," Kotetsu added as he just smiled at Anko and Iwashi who were also watching their team with concern.

"Now why would I do that?" Satoshi asked innocently as he noticed the classroom door opening and watched the Jounin sensei file into the room. "I was only…" Satoshi trailed off when Orochimaru scowled in his direction and he couldn't help the shiver that ran down his spine; as if he'd just dodged a kunai to the heart.

"Only what?" Izumo inquired as he followed Satoshi's gaze to the less than pleased Sannin. "Um… Kotetsu, why is Orochimaru scowling at us? We didn't prank him recently by mistake did we?"

"I don't think so. Maybe he's not actually glaring at us but someone behind us?"

Satoshi sank lower in his chair as the powerful shinobi called for his team and strode out of the room without a backwards glance once he'd turned his gaze away from Satoshi. He couldn't help but shiver a second time and wonder why he always felt so uneasy whenever he saw the Snake Sannin or heard him mentioned. He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't hear Kushina call his team and he would have been left behind if not for Izumo and Kotetsu gently pulling him to his feet and guiding him towards where the red haired kunoichi was waiting for them by the door.

"This way, gentlemen; we'll be heading to Training Ground Sixteen for our meeting," Kushina announced as she led them towards the exit.

They were half way to their destination before Satoshi pulled himself out of his thoughts and returned to reality. He blinked at the two hands holding his in confusion before he glanced up at his teammates who'd been talking softly over the top of his head. He then glanced forward to see Kushina's bright red hair swaying back and forth with each step she took and relaxed as he realized he must have zoned out again. A bad habit he'd developed over the last year and a half that his father kept trying to train him out of since it could get him hurt or killed if he lost track of his surroundings like that when out on a mission.

"So glad you could join us, Satoshi-kun," Kushina drawled as she glanced back over her shoulder. "Shibi-san informed me that you are to run five laps around the compound each time you zone out like that until you break the habit of losing touch with your surroundings."

"Hai, neechan," Satoshi replied automatically, momentarily forgetting that Kushina was his sensei now and not just his honorary sister and should therefore be addressed with a touch more respect. And Kushina (and his adoptive grandfather) was a stickler for proper etiquette. He immediately realized what he'd done though, even as Kushina turned around so she was walking backwards in order to face him and he quickly blurted out, "Gomen nasai, sensei; I forgot… it won't happen again, sensei."

"See that is doesn't or I'll double the number of laps you have to run tonight."

Satoshi swallowed thickly at the promised punishment (because he had no doubt she'd follow through with it) and nodded to show he understood. He didn't relax until Kushina turned back around to face forwards and even then he didn't dare let out a sigh of relief because he knew she'd not only hear him but sense him with her chakra (which is how she'd known the moment he'd started paying attention to his surroundings again).

His two teammates were torn between wanting to laugh over the incident and being cowed by the brief show of temper that their new sensei had displayed over something as harmless as a familiar form of address. They wisely chose to be cowed for the moment since they didn't want to provoke the kunoichi needlessly; rumors of her legendary temper were still bandied about within the halls of the Academy in hushed voices filled with awe and fear. The four of them arrived at their assigned training field ten minutes later and Kushina instructed them to have a seat on a downed tree that was conveniently placed near the entrance to the clearing.

"Normally, when new Genin teams are formed and they meet with their Jounin sensei for the first time, they go through a short introduction and the team is then informed that they are to meet at a specific training ground for the final exam to see if you have what it takes to be a Genin; to see if they can function as a team," Kushina stated without preamble the moment all three of them were sitting. "However, we are in the middle of a war right now and we don't have the luxury of sending those incapable of working in a team back to the academy for extra training. Most of the Genin that graduated with you will spend the next two months in intensive training to prepare them for missions outside of the village where they stand a good chance of being killed if they make even the smallest mistake."

The three Genin didn't say a word as the seriousness of Kushina's words sank in and Satoshi shivered again as he saw a flash of green light in his mind followed quickly by the image of Orochimaru scowling at him. He shoved the memories away before they could distract him though as he kept his attention on Kushina.

"That said, the three of you are, in a way, lucky; you won't be stepping foot outside of the village for at least a year. The reason for that is twofold; first, Satoshi-kun has not yet reached his fifth birthday and despite his status as a prodigy, or maybe even because of his status, the Hokage does not wish to lose him due to a bit of bad luck and inexperience. The second reason is because the two of you have a reputation as jokesters and fooling around on a mission could well see you or one of your teammates killed. Those two reasons are why the three of you were put onto the same team despite the fact that there was a chance the two of you might have shut Satoshi-kun out of the teamwork because of his age and the close friendship you two share."

"I was quite impressed when the two of you sought out Satoshi during lunch instead of leaving him to mope alone over the fact that he hadn't been assigned to a team with one of his friends. I was also proud to see you willingly open up to your new teammates, Satoshi-kun, since I know how much you still dislike meeting and interacting with new people. I was also pleased when the two of you made certain that Satoshi wasn't left behind when he lost himself in his thoughts; it tells me that the three of you have the potential to work well as a team together without any of the usual petty bickering that often occurs."

"Now, given that you know there's a war going on and I know all three of you are aware of my reputation, since I overheard you talking about me earlier, you're probably wondering why I was selected to teach a Genin team instead of being sent back out to the front lines," Kushina continued after a brief pause.

"One reason is because one of my teammates was recently killed on a mission and my other teammate is in the hospital recovering from the injuries he received when we were ambushed on our way back from our last mission. Another two reasons why I was assigned a team were because I specifically requested to be assigned to Satoshi-kun's team since I wished to continue the lessons I have been giving him for the past two years and because his father asked me to be his first sensei. There are several other reasons but you do not need to know them right now."

"That said, there will still be times when I am sent to the front lines to help in the war and during those missions the three of you will be assigned a temporary sensei to monitor your training and supervise you as you complete various D ranked missions around the village for the duration of my mission. You won't have to worry about that for at least a month or two though. Do any of you have any questions so far?"

"What are we going to be doing for the next year if we aren't going to be taking missions outside of the village?" Izumo asked curiously after he exchanged a quick glance with Kotetsu.

"You're going to be training and taking care of the missions that need to be done here in the village so that some of the more experienced teams can start taking more missions outside of the village," Kushina answered. "Don't think that just because you aren't going to be fast tracked through training that I'll be going easy on the three of you though. I plan to train you into the ground from dawn to dusk six days a week from this point forward. We'll be doing a minimum of three D ranked missions a day as well; to help clear out the backlog of missions that have built up over the past few weeks due to the village being shorthanded."

"I'll warn you now, D ranked missions suck. They are the most annoying types of missions and are usually nothing but mindless chores that the villagers have no time and no wish to do for themselves. However, I don't want to hear one word of complaint from any one of you over how boring, how disgusting, or how much of a pain those types of missions are. Completing those tedious and thankless tasks in a timely manner is how you are going to contribute to the village now that you are official shinobi of Konoha. I don't care how much you hate the mission or how annoying the client is; you will give your undivided attention to the mission, you will treat the client with respect, and you will do both with a smile on your face. Is that understood?"

"Hai, Kushina-sensei," all three Genin replied promptly in the face of Kushina's fierce expression.

"Good. Lecture over," Kushina replied with a brilliant smile. "Moving on, I'd like to take a moment to get to know you and allow you to get to know each other a little better. You already know my name and that I am a Jounin kunoichi of Konoha. What you might not know is that I was not born in Konoha but moved here when I was six. Satoshi-kun, why don't you go next?"

"I like bugs and dislike bullies and being picked on because I'm short."

"Thank you; Izumo-kun, you're next."

"I've been friends with Kotetsu-kun since we were five, enjoy playing pranks, and dislike being bored."

"Your turn, Kotetsu-kun."

"I like a good challenge, enjoy making people laugh, and dislike people that don't have a sense of humor."

"That was a good start and from now on, each day we meet I want the three of you to tell each other one thing about yourself that neither of your teammates knows; a difficult task for Kotetsu and Izumo because they've been friends for so long but in the end, I believe that it will help bring you closer together as a team. If there are no questions at this point; I'd like to get an idea where Kotetsu and Izumo stand with their taijutsu while you work on your chakra exercises Satoshi."

Kushina sparred with each ten year old for ten minutes while Satoshi worked on his latest chakra control exercise; floating and spinning a leaf in his left palm while holding a leaf stuck to his left elbow and another leaf stuck to his forehead. Kushina then had the two ten year olds spar against each other for another fifteen minutes as she corrected the minor mistakes she found before she went on to teach them a new kata that expanded upon the basic academy taijutsu forms that they'd been taught. At the end of an hour, she let the three boys rest for fifteen minutes before she set Satoshi to practicing his katas while she tested the two older boys on their chakra control.

When both ten year olds admitted they had never gotten beyond sticking a leaf to their forehead for half a minute, she briefly talked them through the next step (holding the leaf on another body part) and ordered them to work on getting the time they could hold the leaf in place up to one minute. She then told them that if they had any problems to ask Satoshi since he'd mastered the basic leaf exercise over a year ago. Leaving them to their practice, Kushina then mock sparred with Satoshi; allowing him to practice his blocks and attacks while she corrected his form and stances every so often.

At the end of the second hour, Kushina had all three of them run three laps around the training field before running through a short cool down period. Once they were finished, she gave them their first team assignment; to write down their strengths and weaknesses, create a list of the jutsu they could currently perform, and write down three things they would like to learn in the next six months. Kushina then told them they were to meet her back at Training Ground Sixteen at seven o'clock in the morning before she dismissed them for the day.

"Hold up, Satoshi-kun, I'd like to speak with you for a moment," Kushina announced when he had turned to follow his teammates back to the village.

"Sensei?"

"I wanted to ask you why you were so distracted when I picked you up from the Academy."

"Oh… I was wondering why Orochimaru was angry with me; he scowled at me when he entered the classroom to pick up his team but I know I didn't do anything to make him mad and it bothered me that he was angry at me for seemingly no reason."

"He wasn't angry with you, Satoshi-kun, he was angry with the Hokage because he'd requested that you be placed on his team but his request was denied because I'd made arrangements with the Hokage to be named your sensei shortly after you started attending the Academy."

"I'm glad you're my sensei, neechan," Satoshi whispered hoarsely as he shivered over the thought of how close he'd been to having the Orochimaru as his Jounin instructor. "He scares me."

"Why does Orochimaru scare you, little one?" Kushina asked softly as she gathered him into her arms when she noticed him shaking.

"I don't know. Whenever I see him I feel cold and my stomach feels like I ate a bunch of rocks. He makes my Kikaichu nervous too but they can't or won't tell me why. He also had this really scary look in his eyes a few times when I noticed him watching me on my way to the Academy in the mornings with okaasan."

"Hmm… strange but I don't think you have anything to worry about because Orochimaru's a loyal Konoha shinobi and he's not your sensei. Though, if you get any more feelings like that, don't hesitate to tell your father or myself. Right now, I think it's time we get you home and you still have five laps to run for spacing out."

"Hai, sensei," Satoshi mumbled as he dropped his head onto her shoulder and drifted off to sleep; his early morning rising, the laps his father had given him to calm him down, the afternoon's intense training with his team, and his fluctuating emotions all day long had exhausted his rather small body.

* * *

**Translations:** Japanese to English

Akai Chishio no Habanero – Red Hot-Blooded Habanero  
Bento – box lunch or pre-packed meal  
Bunshin no Jutsu – Clone Technique  
Fuuinjutsu – sealing techniques  
Gomen nasai – I'm sorry (somewhat informal)  
Hai – yes  
Henge no Jutsu – Transformation Technique  
Iwagakure (Iwa) – Hidden Rock Village  
Kawarimi no Jutsu – Change of Body Stance Technique (substitution)  
Kenjutsu – sword technique  
Ojiisan/jiisan – grandfather  
Okaasan/kaasan – mother  
Oneechan/neechan – cute way of addressing an older sister  
Oniisan/niisan – brother  
Otousan/tousan – father  
Sashi-chan – intentional misspelling of Satoshi's name and the nickname given to him by Anko  
Sensei – teacher  
Taijutsu – hand to hand combat

**Notes:**

Okay, two things I wanted to address real quick. First, I am fully aware that my Kushina is rather OOC. I just couldn't write her as being all bubbly and hyper when there is a war going on the background of the story. I also see her as taking her duty as a Jounin Sensei seriously. Her core personality is still very much the same but you won't actually get to see that because I don't focus on her during her 'off hours' when she is behaving in her normal hyper self.

The second thing I wanted to address is the conversation at the end of the chapter regarding Orochimaru since I know people will cry 'foul' over me having Kushina call Orochimaru a loyal Konoha shinobi. Obviously, at this point in the story, he is still considered loyal as his 'experiments' have not yet been discovered and he hasn't fled the village and that is why Kushina called him loyal.

Oh, and one more note… the reason why Satoshi's swarm reacts the way it does to Orochimaru will be fully explained much later in the story; so questions asking what is up with his Kikaichu won't be answered since I don't want to hand out too many spoilers.

* * *

**AN:** _I'm sure some of you might have felt this chapter (and the previous chapter) was a little rushed but I didn't want to get bogged down in a day by day depiction of Satoshi/Harry's early life. You can expect the rushed feeling of passing time to continue for a few chapters yet before the story reaches the main timeline of the Naruto Verse (IE: when Naruto earns his hitai-ate). I will try to capture important moments that will have an impact on Satoshi/Harry but there will also be time skips and summaries involved.  
_

___And I know I'm running two days late… well, at least this time it isn't two months late. I suppose that means I'll just have to toss up another couple of updates as scheduled later tonight. ~ Jenn_


	4. A Shinobi's Life is Never Glamorous

**Disclaimer:** _All HP characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies and all Naruto characters are the property of Masashi Kishimoto. This is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites._

**Warnings:** _Mild to moderate violence, character death, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), some moderate Dumbledore bashing (he's more manipulative than evil but mostly just stubborn), and who knows what else. _

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

* * *

Chapter 3: A Shinobi's Life is Never Glamorous

The first two weeks of training and missions were anything but pleasant for the three Genin members of Team Four as Kushina and their clients worked them to the bone. The only pleasant and relatively stress free event during that time, for Satoshi, had been the birth of his cousin Aburame Shinichi (first born son of his uncle Shikuro) on the twenty-second of June. The rest of the time he was training his body into the ground (and into bed as he barely stayed awake long enough to walk through the door) and performing dozens of horrible chores like pulling weeds, collecting garbage, hauling garbage to the dump, babysitting brats, dog walking, and the dreaded capture of Tora the cat.

Currently, Satoshi pulled yet another weed and wiped the sweat out of his face with his left hand as he tossed the unwanted plant into the small pile behind him. They'd been sitting out beneath the scorching summer sun working on an old man's front yard for most of the morning and his little hands were stinging from all of the scratches he'd gotten from the juniper shrubs that grew in the planters that wrapped around the man's house. It didn't help that the sun was beating down on him and both he and his bugs were utterly miserable.

Not far from him, Izumo was standing hip deep in a large koi pond fishing out maple leaves and clearing out trash from the bottom of the pond; Satoshi envied him if only because he got to be in the water. Kotetsu looked like he envied Izumo too, because the spiky haired Genin kept sending dark, pouting looks towards their last team member as he raked up the few scattered leaves about the yard, gathered up trash, and collected the piles of weeds Satoshi pulled. Izumo looked up and shot both of his teammates an apologetic look, knowing they were suffering from the heat far more than he was.

Kotetsu and Izumo had flipped a coin to determine who got to clean out the pond while Satoshi hadn't even been considered for the job since he was too short and hadn't yet learned how to swim (one of the three items he put on his list of things that he wanted to learn). Sighing, Satoshi sent his water oriented Kikaichu to the pond to help Izumo (and to cool the poor things off because they didn't tolerate the heat as well as his other colonies) and sent a few more burrowing Kikaichu into the dirt beneath the junipers where they were loosening the roots of the weeds so it was easier for him to pull them out.

Glancing to his left, Satoshi took note that he only had another three feet of planter to go before he was finished with his part of the mission and he stubbornly set his chin as he shoved his hands back into the brush and sought out another dandelion plant that had taken root in the cool shade beneath the juniper. Next to come out was a long stretch of carpetweed that had been choking the juniper brush he was working around and it took him a few minutes to clear out the vines that had woven themselves around the trunk of the juniper and through some of the low hanging branches that brushed the ground.

Half an hour later, Satoshi wearily climbed to his feet and carefully brushed the dirt from his dark pants as he sent about fifty of his common Kikaichu to search beneath the brush for any weeds he'd missed.

"All done, Satoshi-kun?"

"Hai, Tetsu-kun; did you need help finishing up the rest of the yard or are you finished too?"

"I'm good; I just need to get the pile of weeds sitting behind you. Go sit in the shade and drink some water; Kushina-sensei will be upset if you end up with heat exhaustion or worse a heat stroke because you didn't drink enough water and sat out in the sun almost the entire time."

"Hai, Tetsu-neechan," Satoshi teasingly replied as he darted out of reach of the taller boy and grinned mischievously as he headed for one of the larger maples that shaded the pond and dropped down in the shade.

"Gaki!" Kotetsu barked back with a laugh.

Satoshi spent the next ten minutes sipping water from his canteen as he watched Kotetsu wade out into the pond to help Izumo finish cleaning out trash before he turned most of his attention to his swarm. Part of his attention was focused on the Kikaichu he'd sent into the water, fascinated by the underwater world beneath the surface while another part of his attention was on the Kikaichu he'd spread throughout the entire yard to monitor their surroundings in case someone tried to sneak up on them.

That didn't mean he stopped observing with his own eyes though, since he didn't want Kushina to catch him zoning out again and assign him extra laps. Izumo and Kotetsu were just climbing out of the pond when a spike of chakra announced the return of their sensei and Satoshi glanced up into the tree he was sitting beneath to wave at Kushina in greeting.

"I take it the three of you have finally finished this mission?"

"Hai, sensei."

"Good, clean up as best you can, inform your client that you are finished, turn in your report to the mission desk, and then meet me at Training Ground Sixteen for your afternoon training."

"Hai, sensei!"

Half an hour later, the three Genin trudged onto their usual training ground to find Kushina waiting for them at the edge of the forest that surrounding the clearing. As they lined up in front of her, Kushina eyed them critically checking for any signs of lingering exhaustion, sunburn, or dehydration. She then smiled at them to let them know they passed her visual medical scan (a first in the two weeks they'd been slaving away beneath her ever watchful eye).

"I'm glad to see that the three of you are learning to watch out for your own health and the health of your teammates. It is important that you look after yourselves because poor health can kill you just as quickly as inattention when out on a mission. Right now, I want the three of you to take half an hour to eat your lunch and then rest for ten minutes before stretching out and warming up. After that we'll spend an hour on chakra control exercises before sparring for an hour."

"Once we finish with that, I've picked up two final missions for you to complete for the day; the first one is to hang up some flyers about town for one of the village shops and the second one is to clear trash out of the river running through Training Ground Twenty-eight. And yes, Satoshi-kun, I will start teaching you how to swim during the second mission while Izumo-kun and Kotetsu-kun collect the trash from the deeper portions of the river."

Satoshi grinned widely as he looked forward to both the swimming lessons and the chance to cool off. The three teammates, who were well on their way to becoming friends, settled down in the shade and worked their way steadily through their lunches; neither dawdling nor rushing since gulping their food could lead to indigestion and affect their performance and taking too long would earn them extra laps (something they all wanted to avoid).

As they ate, Satoshi taught both Izumo and Kotetsu English; a suggestion put forward by Kushina in order to give the trio an edge in hostile situations and keep their enemies guessing about what they were planning. The lessons also helped Satoshi keep a firm grasp of his native language since he rarely spoke it any more now that he had become fluent in Japanese. Izumo and Kotetsu had both been eager to learn a new language as they'd immediately seen the advantages of being able to speak in code (thinking first of all the pranking possibilities such a language would open up).

To help them get started, Satoshi had given them copies of his earliest written assignments that Kushina had given him nearly a year earlier (his first year and a half of lessons strictly verbal) which were more along the lines of a handwritten dictionary than actual writing assignments. Right now they were focusing on building up their vocabulary as Kushina would later work with them on reading, writing, and proper grammar. Unknown to Team Four, Kushina had also been teaching Team Minato how to speak English for the past two years; originally it was to help her better remember the foreign language and now it was so there would be someone who could keep track of the three troublemakers that were her Genin in the event something happened to her later down the road.

The language lessons continued through their warm up and their chakra control practice, forcing all three Genin to split their focus between their chakra exercises and the lesson (which was not an easy task). After a half an hour, Kushina ended the English lesson and taught Satoshi a new exercise while the two ten year olds focused on their leaf exercises. First she had Satoshi lay down on his back with the soles of his shoes pressed against the trunk of a tree. Then she had him channel chakra into his feet until his shoes stuck to the side of the tree. Once he'd managed to stick them to the tree for a few seconds, she set him to practicing holding and maintaining the flow of chakra to his feet in preparation for teaching him Kinobori no Waza.

Normally, an instructor would give their Genin a kunai and have them run up the side of the tree while channeling chakra into their feet and mark the tree as they fell to gauge their progress. However, because a poorly executed fall could seriously injure the soon to be five year old (especially as he got higher up the trunk) Kushina was taking the time to teach Satoshi the long way of learning how to climb a tree. This method of teaching Kinobori no Waza would also act as an extension of his chakra building exercises and help further strengthen his growing chakra network. The tree climbing exercise was actually just a higher version of the leaf exercise that required slightly more chakra to maintain so it would be fairly easy for Satoshi to transition into the exercise as he had gained excellent chakra control over the past two years.

After another half an hour, Kushina set Izumo and Satoshi to sparring while she worked with Kotetsu before she had the two ten year olds switch places so she could work with Izumo after another twenty minutes passed. Having the two older boys work with the younger boy helped reinforce their own training as the best way to master a skill is to teach it to someone else (Satoshi had learned less of the academy forms than his two teammates). It also built up the bonds between the three teammates since it put them all on equal footing instead of placing one above the others; each of them being able to offer something to the other two (Izumo and Kotetsu offering each other a challenge as they were evenly matched).

The team dynamics had actually turned out to be very well balanced despite the two older boys' close friendship and the age difference between them and Satoshi and Kushina was very proud of how quickly they learned to work together as a team.

At the end of their sparring practice, Kushina split their team into two groups so they could hang flyers up around the town; Izumo and Kotetsu in one group while she and Satoshi made up the second group. She gave the two ten year olds an hour and a half to hang fifty posters throughout the southern third of the village while she and Satoshi took care of the northern two-thirds; that would leave them three hours of daylight to complete their final mission. One reason why Kushina and Satoshi would be covering a larger area was because Kushina could Shunshin them around to save time.

The first dozen or so times Kushina Shunshined Satoshi, the nearly five year old and his Kikaichu became disoriented, nauseous, and had trouble refocusing; something that Shibi had told her to expect because it was a common reaction to the transportation jutsu for those hosting the destruction bugs. It was a reaction that Satoshi would need to learn to get over quickly; hence the second reason why Kushina was Shunshining them back and forth across town. By the time they hung their last flyer up on the bulletin board outside of the Hokage Tower, Satoshi and his swarm were barely affected by the transportation jutsu though it would still be a good month or two before he could ignore the effects completely.

Since they arrived a half an hour early at Training Ground Twenty-Eight, Kushina had Satoshi strip down to his boxers while she undressed to reveal that she'd been wearing a one piece bathing suit beneath her Jounin uniform. Kushina then jumped into the water and told Satoshi to jump in with her. Satoshi grinned and jumped so that he landed just close enough to the red haired Jounin that he splashed her. His head slipped below the water and he stared all around for a moment before the need for air had him looking for the surface. Kushina helped him up and they shared a grin before she told him to roll over onto his back so she could teach him how to float; a difficult task due to the distinct lack of body fat he had.

"Chikushou, Toshi-kun, you're scrawnier than I thought you were without your jacket hiding you," Izumo declared as he and Kotetsu finally joined them fifteen minutes later.

Satoshi stuck his tongue out and splashed his teammate in response before he went back to trying to float. After another five minutes, Kushina finally gave up on getting Satoshi to float naturally (due to his lack of body fat) and had him work on using chakra to gain buoyancy (an exercise that would later tie into water walking for the young Genin). Once he could manage that for ten seconds at a time, she had him turn back over and began teaching him how to kick and use his arms to propel himself through the water while she held him up by his waist.

Izumo and Kotetsu watched for a few minutes before they stripped down to their boxers and joined them in the river to start fishing out the trash. The next two and a half hours passed by quickly as the four of them mostly played since there wasn't really that much trash in the water. By the time they were ready to call it a day; Satoshi could float for half a minute, propel himself across a short distance, and tread water for a minute before he got too tired.

The next two weeks passed much the same way; with the team doing hard physical training for two hours first thing in the morning, taking a large mission for the rest of the morning, spending lunch and the hottest hours of the day doing light training beneath the cool shade on Training Ground Sixteen, and then performing two small missions before they spent the afternoon training and relaxing either somewhere along the river (when the river needed cleaning) or at one of the public pools in the village to continue working on Satoshi's swimming lessons. Occasionally, they'd take a day off missions to train with another team (usually one of the Genin teams that were formed the same day as theirs or on a rare occasion with Minato's team) to give them a break from the mind numbing missions.

Kushina would then dismiss them around sunset and assign them a number of laps to run either around the village or around the Aburame Compound (the number and route usually depending upon whether or not they got into any trouble that day and how much physical work they'd done during the course of the day). At the end of their first month of training, the strenuous training and mission schedule began to show results as all three Genin found their stamina steadily increasing. Izumo and Kotetsu benefited the most from the training program though; their bodies more mature and better able to adapt to the physical exercise.

In that time, aside from starting Satoshi's swimming lessons, Kushina also tested the two older boys for chakra affinities (Izumo had a water affinity while Kotetsu had an affinity towards fire). Shortly after she began teaching the two boys jutsu that were based off their affinities, she learned that Izumo (who was an orphan) had a bloodline limit that allowed him to create a sticky-chakra-charged-syrup inside of his body that he could expel from his mouth (which they would eventually name Mizuame Nabara). The syrup was so sticky that anyone stepping on it would immediately become stuck. All of Satoshi's Kikaichu (even those that only consumed his still unnamed wild energy) loved the sweet taste of the syrup and often assisted in the clean up once Izumo began working on producing large puddles of the syrup.

Kotetsu's fire jutsu would also be able to neutralize the syrup once he learned a B Rank fire jutsu (which was still a ways off). Right now he was learning low D and C Ranked jutsu that were fairly easy to control and put out in the event he lost control of the jutsu. Satoshi's swarm didn't care for the flames but the exposure to the intense chakra generated heat would help make them stronger over time as the new generations progressively developed stronger heat resistance. In addition to the new jutsu they were learning, their chakra control exercises were progressing to the next level as Satoshi finally began walking up and down tree trunks while the two ten year olds moved onto the next step in the leaf exercise (holding multiple leaves on different body parts).

Outside of his team training, Satoshi was also learning two of his family's techniques; Mushi Yose no Jutsu and Mushi Bunshin no Jutsu. The first technique was one that the Aburame had developed to collect insects out in the wild without resorting to hunting for the bugs since the jutsu drew the insects like flies to honey and held them as securely as a spider web would. The second jutsu was a variation of the clone technique that allowed Satoshi to make both a hollow and a solid clone out of insects; something he hadn't been able to learn until his swarm had reached the five thousand bug mark (a number that was based upon his current height, weight, and the size of his chakra reserves).

The number of different colonies he hosted had grown through the years since he'd gained his first seven colonies; his current count now at one hundred four colonies with a three/ten ratio between chakra associated bugs and the magic associated bugs with the type distribution as follows: forty tracking colonies (twelve chakra and twenty-eight magical), twenty-eight burrowing (eight chakra and twenty magical), twenty water (four chakra and sixteen magical), and sixteen wingless (all magical). Each colony consisted of approximately fifty-five bugs which actually gave him a total count of over fifty-seven hundred Kikaichu (only thirteen hundred of them actually associated with his chakra network).

At any given time there were no more than fifty-four hundred Kikaichu from his swarm within Satoshi's body as the other three hundred constantly monitored his surroundings or hitched rides on those people he was close to. He never placed bugs on people without permission, since his father had taught him that to do so was an invasion of privacy, unless he was tracking a target for a mission (case in point, he always kept a dozen on Tora to make the troublesome feline easier to hunt down and return to the Daimyou's wife).

Satoshi also frequently carried around anywhere from two to three hundred Kikaichu that were not part of his swarm; those bugs belonging to various members of the Aburame Clan so that they'd know if he was ever in trouble. That was in addition to the hundreds of wild ones that still flocked to him in order to feed on the wild energy inside of him (the steady drain on his magical core unknowingly exercising his core and gradually increasing his magical reserves in much the same way those that fed on his chakra helped to increase his chakra reserves).

Around the end of July, the two older boys were introduced to kenjutsu (one of the things on both of their lists that they had been interested in learning along with ninjutsu). At the same time, Satoshi was given lessons in beginning fuuinjutsu (one of Kushina's specialties) and something Shibi had thought Satoshi would excel at due to his eidetic memory (and therefore one of the things on Satoshi's wish list). By the middle of August, the young Genin had successfully learned to create storage scrolls and low powered exploding tags. He'd quickly and easily memorized the various kanji and symbols used to create various seals and the proper order in which to draw them; the hard part was learning how much chakra to infuse into the seals to make them work properly without having the attempts blowing up in his face.

Because of the dangers inherent in creating and using seals, it was one skill that Satoshi was forbidden from practicing or experimenting with on his own until he had at least two years of solid experience. The five year old shinobi didn't mind though, because he had more than enough other things to occupy himself with and Kushina made it a point to practice fuuinjutsu with him a minimum of three days a week and provided him with plenty of scrolls that he could read to improve his understanding of the different seals (those involving the sealing of bijuu or other such high ranked uses notably absent since he was far too young and inexperienced to learn those types of seals right now).

On the first two Saturdays of September, Team Four could be found sitting in the stands of the Konoha Shinobi Stadium cheering on Kakashi as the twelve year old Chuunin fought in the Team Melee and One on One Tournaments for the Jounin Exams. The preteen prodigy was the only shinobi participating in the Jounin Exams without the support of his teammates; though that in no way hindered his performance. Watching the two tournament events was an eye opening experience for Satoshi as he was given his first real look at shinobi were truly capable of if they put forth the effort.

Two days after the One on One Tournament, their team took a short lunch break from training to celebrate Kakashi's promotion to Jounin since Kushina was close to Minato (and his team) and Satoshi was friends with all three of the teens (or near teen in Kakashi's case) with Obito having been claimed as an older brother by the five year old. Satoshi still thought Kakashi was rather cold and stuck up and still disliked it when he picked on Obito but that didn't stop him from giving the twelve year old a new canteen (his old one was rather beat up) and a pack of shuriken (a gift to the new Jounin from Satoshi's father, who hadn't been able to join them because he had to work). Kotetsu and Izumo gave the rather standoffish preteen an assortment of brightly colored face masks (in pink, yellow, and lime green as well as a few that were flowered) as a joke with a couple of high quality black and dark blue ones thrown in the mix.

At the end of the short party, Minato ordered Satoshi to take back any and all Kikaichu he had on his team and the five year old frowned as he did so. That was when Satoshi learned that Minato's team would be taking an important mission outside of the village and while they wouldn't give him any details, Satoshi was smart enough to realize that they'd be on the front lines where most of the fighting was taking place. It was the only logical reason for the order to remove his Kikaichu this time when he'd not been given similar orders during previous missions that the older team had taken out of the village.

That knowledge had Satoshi really wanting to leave the Kikaichu with them so he'd know they were safe but he knew Minato would know if any of his bugs made their way back onto any of them. Satoshi watched them leave with a heavy heart as he listened to Kakashi and Obito bickering like usual and he prayed that they would come home safe.

His absent friends were soon pushed out of Satoshi's mind as Kushina piled more training on them; Satoshi especially since he had begun to mope the day after Minato's team had left. Kotetsu and Izumo were now learning tree walking the usual way; with the two of them competing to see who could reach the top of the tree first as they ran up the trunk of a tree and used a kunai to mark their progress. While they were doing that, Satoshi was learning to hang upside down on a branch while performing the leaf concentration exercise at the same time (Kushina spotting him to make certain he didn't get hurt when he inevitably fell each time his concentration broke).

Team Four was just starting their fifth month of training (and had completed over two hundred D Ranked missions; an average of three missions per day and sixty-eight days where they actually took missions), when a battered and exhausted Team Minato finally returned one member short and with one member injured.

Satoshi took Obito's death hard; the boisterous Uchiha had been an older brother to him practically from the day they'd met. The five year old sank into a major depression and barely even bothered to go through the motions of living day to day; he refused to eat for the most part and only put forth a pathetic effort at training when prodded by his father or Kushina. Four days after learning about Obito's death, a memorial service was held for those who had recently fallen (including Obito) on the front lines and Satoshi shut himself off completely. The five year old wasn't the only one grieving either; both Rin and Kakashi had taken Obito's death even harder because they both blamed themselves for their teammate's death.

A week after the memorial service, after the third day that Satoshi refused to even get out of bed and stopped responding to any outside stimuli when awake (despite the fact that he was obviously conscious), Inoichi was brought into delve into the little Genin's mind (something he'd done a handful of times through the years to insure the child was adjusting well to his new life and family). Inoichi withdrew within seconds of attempting to get through to the child; completely unable to break through the wall that the five year old had built around himself in his grief.

The meeting between Shibi, Inoichi, Kushina, Minato, and the Hokage that followed the failed mind delving lasted long into the night. All five adults were worried because Kakashi showed no signs of giving up his wallowing and Satoshi had apparently just given up completely (though he was really only trapped inside of his mind due to a burst of internalized accidental magic; not that the adults were aware of that). After much deliberation, it was determined that Kakashi needed to be shocked out of his self-pity as the twelve year old was their best chance of getting through to Satoshi because he was the closet remaining link they had to Obito (Rin and the various adults had all already tried and failed).

Shocking Kakashi out of his guilt riddled grief fell to Kushina, who stormed into the young Jounin's apartment and gave him a dose of the Akai Chishio no Habanero's temper and soundly whipped his butt up one side of the village and down the other. Kushina then dragged the thoroughly chastised (and liberally bruised) near-teen to the Aburame Compound where she proceeded to show him that other people needed him to be strong even if he couldn't be strong for himself.

Kakashi spent an hour trying to talk Satoshi out of his waking coma before he resorted to summoning Bisuke (Satoshi's favorite ninken out of the five ninken Kakashi could now summon) and ordered the friendly little dog to tickle and lick the five year old until he woke up. It took several hours and an additional two ninken but they finally broke through the wall that had kept Inoichi out and Satoshi pushed the dogs away after glancing at Kakashi once; intent on returning to his mind and his memories of his absent and much missed brother. Kakashi wasn't about to allow him to lock himself back in his mind though as he once more began talking.

"It's my fault that Obito-kun is dead," Kakashi rasped which made Satoshi snap his attention to the older boy. "It should have been me who died but Obito risked his life to save me. I was stupid. I always thought that I was the better ninja and in the end, Obito proved that he was better than me because he truly knew what was important. I wish I could go back and change what happened but I can't. Obito wouldn't want you to waste away grieving over him though…"

Kakashi's confession turned lecture was cut off abruptly as Satoshi punched him in the nose; his green eyes blazing with fury as he glared at Kakashi (his sunglasses had been left on the table beside his bed). He was currently too weak to break Kakashi's nose but he still managed to hit the older boy hard enough to make his nose bleed.

"_You hated Obito-_niisan_! You have no right to tell me what he would or wouldn't want!_" Satoshi hissed in English as he lashed out a second time and clipped Kakashi on the chin.

"_You're right, I don't,_" Kakashi replied in the same language causing Satoshi to pause in confusion because he'd never heard the older boy ever speak English before. "_I didn't realize how much Obito's friendship meant to me until it was too late. If it will make you feel better to hit me; I will not stop you._"

That was all the invitation Satoshi needed as he gave a short cry and lunged at Kakashi swinging; most of his blows raining down on Kakashi's chest and stomach. The two weeks of near starving himself left Satoshi weak though and after no more than five minutes of furious blows, Satoshi stopped swinging and simply broke down and cried for the first time in over two years. Kakashi wrapped the younger boy in his arms at that point and simply held him as Satoshi finally allowed himself to properly grieve for his missing brother; the older boy shedding more than a few silent tears as well. In the living room, Shibi and Shoichi both smiled in relief as their Kikaichu reported what was happening in Satoshi's bedroom before they nodded to Minato, Kushina, and Inoichi who had been waiting anxiously to see if their plan had worked.

Team Minato was officially disbanded the next day; Minato to finish his training under the Sandaime in preparation of taking over as the Yondaime Hokage, Rin to the Konoha Hospital where she was furthering her medical training under Taji, and Kakashi temporarily assigned to assist Team Four while Satoshi recovered from his long depression. Kakashi spent nearly all of his free time with the five year old, telling him stories of Obito from their various missions (those that weren't classified) and training sessions. Once Satoshi rejoined his team for training, Kakashi continued to hang out with the Genin team as he helped train them and learned how to cope with the Sharingan Eye that Obito had given to him before he died.

The changes in both Satoshi and Kakashi were patently obvious to anyone that knew them; with Kakashi being far more open and accepting in addition to taking on Obito's tendency to be late all the time while Satoshi began hiding his emotions more often and with greater efficiency. Aside from his parents and grandfather; Kushina, Kotetsu, Izumo, and Kakashi were the only ones that could make Satoshi laugh out loud or get him to play around like a normal kid and that was only when no one else was around. Even the friends he'd made during his year at the academy couldn't draw him out like they had before but that was mostly because he rarely ever saw them any more.

Once Satoshi had recovered what strength he lost during his depression, he threw himself into his training with single-minded purpose; pushing himself harder then before. Kushina and Shibi monitored him closely during this time but let him push his body to its limits since they knew it was yet another part of the grieving process. By the end of October, Satoshi slowed down without being told as he finally began to come to terms with Obito's death and he soon fell back into a routine that was only slightly more difficult than the routine he'd followed prior to the thirteen year old's death. Around the same time, the war between Iwa and Konoha finally came to an end as the Sandaime Tsuchikage and the Sandaime Hokage signed a treaty agreement after the Tsuchikage was forced to surrender.

On November first, Namikaze Minato was sworn into office as the Yondaime Hokage while Orochimaru watched bitterly from the side (the man furious that Sarutobi had not chosen him as his successor). That coupled with a hundred other minor slights (including the refusal to allow him to train the young Aburame prodigy) saw Orochimaru begin to plot the downfall of Konoha (his previous desire had been to rule the village) though his plans and secret experiments (which he'd been running for years now) would not come to light until early December. Satoshi feared for his friend, Anko, when he learned that she had gone with Orochimaru when he left; though her two teammates had been left behind.

In the wake of Orochimaru's deflection and subsequent escape a month after Minato's inauguration, the AnBu discovered the human experimentations that Orochimaru had been conducting. There was only one survivor found; a young ten year old orphan that had vanished shortly after he'd passed the Chuunin exam some four years earlier whose name was Tenzou. The shaken child was discovered to have undergone some kind of genetic experiment that granted him the ability to use the Shodai Hokage's Mokuton bloodline limit. Satoshi was only peripherally aware of this though as his attention was still focused on his absent friend.

Over the course of the next year and a half, Satoshi would flourish as a shinobi along with his two teammates. His skills in fuuinjutsu and genjutsu (once he was introduced to the art of illusion) grew in leaps and bounds as did his chakra control and his ability to command and control his Kikaichu. His taijutsu and ninjutsu skills remained about average due to his small stature and still growing chakra coils but his excellent chakra control, speed, and accuracy helped make up for what he lacked in stamina and power.

The other new skill he was introduced to during this time was kenjutsu in order to extend his reach since while he'd grown, he was still rather short and petite for his age (due to his biological family's genetics and not because of outside influence or an imbalanced diet). Because his clan didn't have a kenjutsu style (since few of his clansmen bothered with swords or skills outside of the academy basics and their swarms), Kushina opted to teach him how to wield a set of wakizashi blades in the Uzumaki style due to his speed and flexibility. She would give him a set of weighted wooden practice blades for training and a stern warning not to even touch a real blade until she said he could.

Early on during those eighteen months, Minato and Kushina finally tied the knot in a small, private ceremony (the two Jounin had danced about their feelings for each other for over six years). The two reasons that the pair did not announce the happy occasion to the entire village were due to Minato's numerous enemies and Kushina's mostly hidden status as the Jinchuuriki of the nine-tailed fox.

The change in Kushina's familial status didn't change the fact that she was a slave driver when it came to her team's training – not that her Genin had ever expected it to. Her reasoning was that they needed to prepare for their first C Rank mission that would take them out of the village for the first time and eventually the Chuunin Exams which they'd be allowed to enter the following year if they reached their goals for the year.

Roughly three months after Kushina and Minato were married, Anko was found and returned to Konoha bearing Orochimaru's Cursed Seal and Team Four (under Satoshi's influence) were amongst the few in the village (shinobi or civilian) that didn't shun the kunoichi for her former association with the Snake Sannin. Anko tried to push them away but Satoshi stubbornly refused to be chased off and his teammates willingly stood by him.

Kotetsu and Izumo made certain that Satoshi didn't get hurt (emotionally or physically) as well as tried to impress upon the confrontational kunoichi that they didn't care about her association with Orochimaru. It would take months before she finally gave up on chasing the stubborn trio off but she did eventually accept that they were going to be a relatively permanent fixture in her life. Her reluctant acceptance pleased Satoshi to no end and eased his fear that he would loose another friend (Obito's death still affecting him and always would on some level).

It was about that time that it became obvious that their team was forming into a highly versatile team due their combined skills. They were a fairly strong offensive team with Kotetsu and Izumo a hard hitting close range duo whose attacks were devastating when they worked in tandem with each other while Satoshi provided long range support with his Kikaichu and genjutsu. They were also good at infiltration and reconnaissance due to Satoshi's Kikaichu and Kotetsu and Izumo's ability to sneak in and out of most any building (a skill they'd developed during their pranking years at the Academy).

Furthermore, tracking and capturing bandits and low level thugs was fairly easy for Team Four since Satoshi could use his Kikaichu to track their quarry through any terrain and in most any type of weather while Izumo's bloodline limit allowed them to capture their target with minimal risk when paired with one of Satoshi's genjutsu. Once Satoshi turned six, that versatility would often see their team providing support to older teams during high ranked C and low ranked B missions outside of the village. Satoshi came to love those out of village missions; visiting new places and learning all kinds of new things appealing to his inquisitive nature (once he'd stopped suppressing that part of him in his grief over Obito's death).

It was not long after Satoshi's sixth birthday that Satoshi learned his adoptive mother was pregnant. Satoshi loved the idea of being a big brother but secretly worried that his parents only wanted to replace him because he wasn't good enough (a left over insecurity from when he was younger). Kotetsu and Izumo were rather quick to pick up on Satoshi's fears and they didn't hesitate to corner him to find out what was bothering him. That was the day that Satoshi finally told his teammates that he was adopted after his father had found him in the forest and that he hadn't been born in the Elemental Countries; the only two secrets he'd kept from them.

Shibi and Mayumi were also quick to pick up on Satoshi's insecurities and they both did their best to reassure the troubled six and a half year old that they still loved him just as much as they did before and that they were not trying to replace him. Shibi also didn't hesitate to tell Satoshi that he believed he would be a good big brother to the little tick once he was born. The moment that Satoshi learned the baby had been given his or her own nickname instead of being called by Satoshi's nickname (which was still little bug), most of his worries were set to rest as he now had solid proof he wasn't being replaced.

It also helped that the way his parents and grandfather treated him when he was home between missions hadn't really changed beyond the fact that his mother was less inclined to participate in strenuous physical activities. They also sought to include him in the preparations that were being made for the baby; such as helping to turn the second bedroom into a nursery, picking out furniture for the nursery, and baby proofing the house. It was also about that time that Satoshi was given a watered down version of the 'Talk' in order to help him understand where babies came from.

The small family of three would welcome Satoshi's little brother, Shino, into the world on the twenty-third of January in nineteen-eighty-seven. Satoshi was immediately fascinated by his baby brother; he'd never seen such a small baby up close bar the handful of memories he had of his birth parents holding him up in front of a mirror and those didn't really count. The last of his insecurities revolving around his new brother would be smothered the first time he held the little tick and they would be replaced with feelings of protectiveness that would only grow fiercer as both boys grew older.

Less than a week after Satoshi's brother was born, Team Four would venture forth to Kumogakure to participate in the Chuunin Exams for the first time. And while Satoshi had been taking missions outside of Konoha for the past six and a half months this would be his first time stepping outside of Fire Country (not counting the two and a half years he lived outside of the Hidden Countries prior to being found and adopted by Shibi) and for the first time since Obito's death you could actually see the six year old's excitement as he practically skipped all the way to Kumo.

There were an additional seven teams traveling to Kumo with them. Out of the twenty-four Genin heading to Kumo, the six Genin from Teams Four and One (Orochimaru's former team now under a new sensei) were, by far, the youngest in the group; the rest of the Genin all in their late teens. Those teams were mostly made up of Genin who'd not managed to stand out on the battlefield during the course of the war where shinobi were sometimes promoted in the field when they displayed exemplary behavior or judgment. Many of those older Genin were amused and annoyed in turns by Satoshi's blatant enthusiasm as he chattered endlessly about his new little brother to anyone that would listen.

Kumo was a sight to see for the six and a half year old and his Kikaichu (now numbering just over eleven thousand) went on a whirlwind tour for him so that he could see everything (though they did not invade anyone's privacy and they avoided those places where they'd cause trouble if they were discovered – such as Kumo's library).

They were given three days to register and rest after arriving in the city and the Jounin that had made the journey with them ensured all of the Konoha teams registered first thing before they retired to their hotel rooms to rest and prepare for the first exam; which would be a written exam. During those days of rest, Kushina (who'd visited Kumo previously) took Team Four on a short tour of the markets to allow them time to shop for souvenirs since they wouldn't have another chance once the exams started. Their team also sized up some of their competition as they moved through the streets, though that was difficult when it came to Kumo Genin; the other Hidden Villages that sent teams to the exams being rather easy to pick out thanks to their hitai-ate and uniforms.

On the day of the first portion of the test, Satoshi, Kotetsu, and Izumo took care to dress with care and pack all of their ninja tools since they'd been warned that the second test usually took place immediately after the first test for those that passed the written portion. Like Obito had before him when Satoshi had first earned his hitai-ate, Kakashi had taken Satoshi aside and warned him about what he could expect to face during the exam before asking him to be careful and telling the six and a half year old that failing the exam didn't matter so long as he came home alive and in one piece.

Satoshi had passed that information on to his teammates shortly afterwards as he'd long since stopped keeping secrets from his two teammates (not counting clan secrets like the family jutsu and the wild energy inside of him that wasn't chakra). Once they were ready, Kushina escorted them to the entrance of Kumo's Shinobi Academy and wished them luck before she left to join the other Jounin.

The first trial they needed to pass was actually making it to the classroom where their test would take place as a number of Kumo Chuunin had taken up post just inside of the academy doors in order to discourage teams from actually taking the test. Team Four made it passed the obstruction by a bit of misdirection with Satoshi creeping by on his hands and knees under a low level genjutsu while Kotetsu and Izumo provided a loud distraction. Once he was clear, Satoshi then returned the favor for his teammates by hitting the group if Chuunin in the back of the head with water balloons filled to the bursting with shaving cream (just two of the many prank supplies that Izumo and Kotetsu brought with them in the reusable storage scrolls that Satoshi had made for them).

Unsurprisingly, a number of other teams took advantage of Team Four's mayhem in order to sneak through; including the other seven teams from Konoha. The Jounin who'd been watching the security cameras that monitored the blockade were mildly amused by the underhanded tactic because it wasn't malicious and effectively neutralized the Chuunin long enough for several teams to get through without completely disabling the checkpoint for those teams that arrived after them.

As the Konoha teams stepped inside of the classroom, the Chuunin proctors that would be monitoring the exam handed them each a slip of paper with a number on it that corresponded to a number on the desk they were to sit at, effectively splitting up teams. Satoshi felt his first stab of nervousness over being separated from his teammates and the other Konoha Genin but he quickly buried it as he took his seat between a Sunagakure Genin and a Kirigakure Genin. Twenty-five minutes later, the bell signaling the start of the test rang and the Kumo Jounin administering the written test arrived to explain the rules while the Chuunin proctors passed out the test sheets (face down) and pencils.

The rules of the test were simple; each question was worth one point and each time they were caught cheating, five points would be subtracted from their score. If a person was caught cheating five times, then that person's entire team would be disqualified and kicked out of the exam. Five minutes after that, they were told to start the test and that they would have exactly forty-five minutes to complete all twenty-five questions.

Satoshi had no trouble completing all of the questions in less than thirty minutes thanks to his eidetic memory, the advanced lessons his father and grandfather had given him to keep him from growing bored, and his Kikaichu. His Kikaichu were then used to help his teammates answer all of the questions when he had the miniscule wingless colonies congregate on their test papers and spell out the answers to those questions they were struggling with in English so no one would know what the bugs were doing.

During that time, about one fifth of the teams that had come to take the tests were disqualified and kicked out because they were caught cheating more than five times. That still left well over one hundred and fifty Genin to take the second half of the written exam and move on to the second exam if they passed. When the final portion of the written test came, Satoshi was shocked to his core and would have been in a blind panic if not for Kakashi warning him that it would be a trick question whose meaning he would have to figure out in a set time limit.

Kumo's trick question wasn't actually a trick question but more of a trick order; they'd been told that to pass the written portion of the exam and move onto the next test each team would have to kill their weakest member. If they refused to follow through with the order, they would be asked to leave the room while if they failed to kill the weakest member after agreeing to the order, then they would fail the test and never be allowed to take the Chuunin Exams again. Kotetsu and Izumo were the first ones up out of their seats refusing to follow through with such an order without even an ounce of hesitation; the two of them calmly gathered the stunned Satoshi and carried him out of the room.

They were the first team to actually pass the task since it had been a test of their ability to accept their teammates even if they had weaknesses instead of cutting their losses just to gain a promotion. Only three quarters of the teams that had made it through the written portion of the first exam passed that trick question while the other quarter failed because they were willing to murder a teammate for selfish reasons. Satoshi thanked his teammates for dragging him out of there before he said something stupid and insulted all Kumo shinobi and embarrassed Konoha.

The two older boys just laughed and told him that they'd been worried Satoshi would be tempted to take them both out which made those foreign shinobi eavesdropping on their conversation frown since they had pegged Satoshi as the weakest member of Team Four because of his age and size. Satoshi just laughed in response to the teasing which only served to further confuse those that had been eavesdropping on their conversation.

The thirty-nine teams moving onto the next portion of the Chuunin Exam were then led out of the Academy building by the Jounin Proctor of the next task to the entrance of a cave that the Kumo shinobi fondly called the Circle of Death. The Circle of Death was actually a man-made series of tunnels that had been carved through the cliffs; linking together a series of natural caves within the mountains that Kumo's Administration Building (which also housed the Raikage's Office) had been built upon. Inside of those caverns lurked all kinds of deadly denizens but the biggest danger was the caverns themselves since there were frequent cave-ins, an endless maze of hidden crevices, and hundreds of man-made traps spread through out the seventy mile tunnel ring.

Their objectives; to run the gamut in seven days, collect one of fifteen stone spheres scattered throughout the Circle of Death, and escape the caverns with all three of their teammates alive and conscious. The fact that there were only fifteen sphere's available meant that more than half of the teams that entered the cavern would fail right from the start. It also meant that there would be fierce competition to hold onto one of the spheres if you managed to find one.

Satoshi wasn't worried about the natural obstacles (both living and non-living) inside of the caves since he was confident that his Kikaichu could guide them safely through the tunnels. What he was worried about was their competition due to the fact that there were no rules in place to prevent the teams from killing each other in their quest to locate or steal a sphere. Several other teams were also worried about their chances as four teams dropped out of the exam at that point while the other thirty-five teams (including Team Four) signed the required waivers and lined up in groups of nine (or three teams) at one of the twelve entrances to the Circle of Death to wait for the signal to start.

Five days later, just before sunset, Kotetsu and Izumo carried Satoshi and one of the stone spheres out of the Circle of Death. They were the first team to navigate the cavern and carry out a sphere (three teams had cleared the cave before them but had failed to gain a sphere for one reason or another). Their pass came at a high cost though as Satoshi had been seriously injured when their team had the misfortune to run into the Jinchuuriki of the Nibi. He'd been raked across the chest from left shoulder to right hip by Ni'i Yugito's chakra enshrouded claws when the desperate teen had transformed into her one-tailed state and attacked their team towards the end of their fourth day in the caves less than an hour after they'd managed to find and retrieve one of the sought after spheres.

Satoshi had, at the time, run back and jumped in front of Izumo who'd tripped over a rock while they were trying to flee from the stronger Genin. Pain, anger, and fear had triggered his first bout of external accidental magic in almost five years; the magic flinging the enraged Jinchuuriki across a distance of over twenty meters and slamming her into a wall. The older teen had hit the wall with enough force that it had knocked the young host unconscious and out of her one-tailed state as well as triggered a minor cave-in that separated the three of them from the Jinchuuriki.

Satoshi's Kikaichu (those that hadn't died the moment they were exposed to the bijuu's chakra) had used their bodies to stop his wounds from bleeding too heavily and Satoshi used his chakra to put on a henge to hide the wound to avoid letting any other teams they ran into know that he'd been seriously injured and therefore reveal that their team was an easy target. Kotetsu and Izumo then spent all night and most of the next day taking turns carrying their injured teammate (their sphere safely hidden in a storage scroll).

Satoshi fought to remain conscious as he was carried despite the pain and his magical exhaustion so that he could use his swarm to guide them quickly and safely around any obstacles in their rush to escape the caverns. Their team barely passed the task and that was only because they had a sphere, made it out within the seven day time limit, and all three of them had been conscious when they stepped out of the cave. Satoshi would pass out the instant he received confirmation that their team had passed the task.

He would then spend the next thirty-six hours at the mercy of a medical team to have the five gashes cleaned, stitched, and bandaged; the bijuu's tainted chakra that clung to the wounds preventing them from being fully healed through the use of medical jutsu. Kushina was beyond pissed when she learned that they had encountered a Jinchuuriki that recklessly entered the one-tail state and would have made a big deal out of it if not for Satoshi quietly reminding her (in English) that doing so would only draw more attention to him and raise questions as to how he had survived the attack and how their team had escaped.

When that still didn't change Kushina's mind about raising a stink, Satoshi wrote down that he'd stopped the partially transformed Jinchuuriki cold with a bloodline limit (which is what his family believed his magic to be) that his family didn't want anyone finding out about. That information made Kushina pause and reconsider, as none of the Aburame had even hinted that Satoshi had a Kekkei Genkai. The fact that said bloodline limit stopped a rampaging Jinchuuriki long enough for the three Genin to escape was knowledge that they couldn't risk revealing to the world at large.

The scroll he'd written that information down on (in English of course) was promptly destroyed to prevent anyone from finding and deciphering it and Satoshi's teammates were promptly sworn to secrecy about what they'd seen Satoshi do while in the Circle of Death.

* * *

**Translations:** Japanese to English

Akai Chishio no Habanero – Red Hot-Blooded Habanero  
Gaki – brat  
Hai – yes  
Iwagakure (Iwa) – Hidden Rock Village  
Jinchuuriki – demon container; demon host (also called the power of a living sacrifice or something similar, I think)  
Kenjutsu – sword technique  
Kinobori no Waza – Act of Tree Climbing  
Kirigakure (Kiri) – Hidden Mist Village  
Konohagakure (Konoha) – Hidden Leaf Village  
Kumogakure (Kumo) – Hidden Cloud Village  
Kyuubi – one of the Bijuu; nine tailed fox  
Mizuame Nabara – Starch Syrup Capture Field  
Mokuton – Wood Release (combination of Earth and Water)  
Mushi Bunshin no Jutsu – Insect Clone Technique  
Mushi Yose no Jutsu – Insect Gathering Technique  
Nibi – one of the Bijuu; two-tailed cat  
Oneechan/neechan – a childish or cute way of addressing an older sister  
Oniisan/niisan - older brother  
Sandaime Hokage – Third Fire Shadow  
Sandaime Tsuchikage – Third Earth Shadow  
Shodai Hokage – First Fire Shadow  
Sunagakure (Suna) – Hidden Sand Village  
Wakizashi – type of Japanese sword usually between 30 and 60 centimeters long.

**Notes:**

Izumo's supposed Kekkei Genkai – yes, I am fully aware that the Mizuame Nabara is not listed as a Kekkei Genkai in canon but I'm taking creative license to call it one in this story.


	5. A Shinobi's Life is Plagued with Tragedy

**Disclaimer:** _All HP characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies and all Naruto characters are the property of Masashi Kishimoto. This is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites._

**Warnings:** _Mild to moderate violence, character death, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), some moderate Dumbledore bashing (he's more manipulative than evil but mostly just stubborn), and who knows what else. _

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

* * *

Chapter 4: A Shinobi's Life is Plagued with Tragedy

On the seventh day, after the last of the able teams had exited the caverns, dozens of Kumo Jounin entered the Circle of Death to pick up all stragglers and bring out the dead. The fifteen lucky teams who'd passed the difficult task (including the Jinchuuriki's team) were then set to face each other in a series of one on one matches in order to reduce the number of participants for the third and final task down to a more reasonable number. Satoshi, his wounds still not fully healed due to the demonic chakra that saturated the injury, had no choice but to drop out of the exams at that point.

That still left forty-four Genin to face each other in the two preliminary rounds with only twenty potentially going on to the final task. Satoshi stayed to watch the preliminary rounds just long enough to cheer on both of his teammates (who both won their matches) and the few other Leaf Genin that had passed the second task before Kushina whisked him away to their hotel room so that he could rest while his injuries healed. Later that night, while Kotetsu and Izumo watched over the sleeping Satoshi, Kushina hunted down one Ni'i Yugito.

The riled redhead soon cornered her prey in a dark alley and threatened her with bodily harm if she dared enter a partially transformed state or, heaven forbid, released her bijuu during the final task or if she spoke one word about what happened when she'd attempted to confront her Genin team during the second task. When Yugito belligerently asked who she was to threaten her, Kushina gave her a feral grin and told the younger Jinchuuriki her name which effectively cowed the Nibi's container as Kushina's reputation as a deadly and dangerous opponent was well known throughout all of the Elemental Nations and well earned.

Yugito didn't hesitate to apologize for injuring the young Genin (now that she knew who she was dealing with); explaining that she'd been desperate at the time because of the threat of having the Nibi extracted from her should she fail any portion of the exam hanging over her head. Kushina understood how the pressure must have made the younger Jinchuuriki feel desperate but still couldn't forgive the twelve year old for nearly killing her honorary little brother and charge. Satoshi would not learn about the encounter until two and a half weeks later.

Team Four (minus Satoshi) would spend the next four weeks training for the upcoming matches outside of Kumo where they wouldn't be seen by the other participants while Satoshi remained in bed recovering under the watchful eyes of the other Jounin who weren't busy training their Genin. At the end of the second week, Satoshi was up and moving once more, albeit with great care as the deeper three claw marks (there were five in total) that marred his chest and stomach still hadn't fully healed and were prone to reopening if he wasn't careful (and sometimes even if he was). And while he was forbidden from physical training that didn't stop him from practicing his chakra control exercises or working on his fuuinjutsu and genjutsu.

Near the middle of the third week, he had a visitor in the form of Ni'i Yugito who brought him a rare scroll on fuuinjutsu (after somehow discovering the six year old studied that branch of jutsu). She also gave him another scroll containing several high level suiton jutsu (the Nibi had scented both of the elemental affinities in his chakra when Yugito had spilled his blood, though she didn't have access to any doton jutsu or she would have given him a third scroll). The last two things that Yugito gave him was a sincere apology for attacking him and a promise to never speak of their encounter inside the caverns to anyone.

Satoshi accepted the apology (and the scrolls), told her he forgave her (after she explained why she'd been so desperate) but that he'd never forget, and wished her luck in the upcoming Tournament. Kushina was a little put out that Satoshi had forgiven the Jinchuuriki so easily but at the same time was proud of him for handling the entire incident so maturely. She then promptly confiscated the two scrolls so that she could check their validity, make certain there were no traps on them, and determine if he had the chakra and skill levels necessary to understand and perform the jutsu and seals contained inside of them.

Once she was certain they were safe, she gave them back to him with a stern warning not to try any of them until he was fully healed and she could supervise his training. That didn't stop Satoshi from reading through the scrolls and practicing the hand seals for the jutsu in order to help pass the time.

On the day before the Tournament, the stitches were removed from Satoshi's injuries after the majority of the demonic chakra had been leached out of the wounds by his remaining non-chakra oriented Kikaichu. It would still be another month or two before he was completely healed and cleared to resume training but he could at least move around without fear of ripping the gashes open every time he twisted wrong.

Kotetsu and Izumo were both relieved to see him on the mend; Izumo especially as the twelve year old blamed himself for Satoshi getting injured since Satoshi had only gone back to protect Izumo when the older boy had tripped. Satoshi on the other hand didn't blame his teammate because no one had forced him to step between the Nibi and the fallen Izumo and he knew he would do it again in a heartbeat if the need arose.

The Tournament itself was something to behold and packed with action as each of the twenty Genin that had made it through the preliminary round showcased their skills. Out of the Konoha shinobi that made it into the Tournament, Kotetsu made it to the second round of the Tournament where he soon lost to a Genin from Kiri while Izumo had lost his first match to a Kumo Genin. Anko ended up losing to Morino Ibiki (another Konoha Genin) in the first round who in turn lost to Yugito in the third round because she had higher stamina due to the bijuu's chakra.

At the end of the day and subsequently the end of the Tournament, Ni'i Yugito stood undefeated thanks to the Nibi and the fear of a quick death should she fail. All four Genin from Konoha that had made it into the Final Task of the Chuunin Exam had done well; even if they hadn't won the Tournament and the chances they would earn their promotion were high (though they wouldn't know for certain until they returned to Konoha).

The Konoha contingent spent one last night in Kumogakure so that the four teens that had participated in the Tournament could rest before heading home first thing the next morning. The journey back to Fire Country would take almost twice as long as the journey from Fire Country to Lightning Country due to the various injuries that had been acquired by the Genin; Satoshi's being the worst by far (even though they were partially healed). They finally reached Konoha on the evening of the ninth of April and the entire group reported to the Hokage Tower to fill out their preliminary report (with the Jounin submitting their recommendations for promotion).

Once they were finished, Kushina dismissed Kotetsu and Izumo and told them to get plenty of rest and meet her at their usual training ground at seven sharp on Monday morning. The red headed Jounin then escorted Satoshi home with the intent of confronting Shibi about Satoshi's hidden Kekkei Genkai.

"Kushina-sensei?"

"Nani, Satoshi-kun?

"You know you don't have to walk me home any more, ne?"

"Actually, yes I do. I have a bone to pick with your father and I need to give him a full report on your performance in the Exams and on your injury. And no amount of fancy talking on your part is going to make me forget or change my mind; so I suggest you forgo the attempt and save us both the headache."

"Hai, sensei."

"Chin up, you have nothing to be worried about nor do you need to be ashamed over the fact that you dropped out after the second task; if you hadn't quit at that point, I would have pulled you out myself."

"Hai, sensei," Satoshi repeated just as morosely as he'd replied the first time over the reminder that he had ultimately failed the exams.

They arrived at the Compound ten minutes later and Kushina led the way to the back of the estate where Satoshi's house sat tucked in the corner and politely knocked on the door (she had refrained from just walking in like she usually did because she was there on official business and not as a family friend). Mayumi answered the door a moment later, baby Shino cradled in her arms and her happy greeting died on her lips the moment she took in Kushina's set expression and Satoshi's dejected stance.

"Come in, Kushina," Mayumi invited softly as she stepped back out of the way. "Go ahead and take a seat in the living room and I will fetch my husband since it appears you are here on official business; though I do hope you can spare time after your business has been completed to visit for a moment."

"Arigatou, Mayumi," Kushina replied formally as she headed towards the living room. "If my meeting with your husband does not take too long, I would be honored to stay for a short while. Satoshi-kun, come; you will need to be present for our discussion."

"Hai, sensei," Satoshi murmured as he cast a regretful glance towards where his mother and brother had disappeared into the back of the house in search of his father.

Satoshi sat down beside Kushina on the couch after she silently pointed to the cushion beside her when he'd headed towards one of the chairs scattered about the room. He grimaced because he knew the upcoming conversation wasn't going to be pleasant and only hoped that his father wouldn't be too mad at him for blabbing about his supposed bloodline limit; not that he'd had much of a choice at the time. When Shibi entered the room a few minutes later, Satoshi averted his face and wrapped his left arm around his stomach in shame while his much reduced swarm remained subdued in response to his emotions.

"Kushina-san, my wife informed me that you are here on official business; is there something I can help you with?"

"I'm going to have to ask you to clear the room of any Kikaichu that are not part of yours or Satoshi-kun's swarms so that I can raise a privacy barrier before we begin," Kushina practically ordered as she lifted her chin slightly to show her determination while her words conveyed the seriousness of the coming discussion.

"I see," Shibi replied in a tone that was completely devoid of emotion as his eyes flickered to Satoshi before he sent his swarm sweeping through the room to chase out all of the Kikaichu that were not bonded to him or his son before he sat down and gave a single sharp nod to Kushina to indicate the room was clear.

"When exactly were you going to tell me that your adopted son had an unknown, untested, and untrained Kekkei Genkai?" Kushina demanded without preamble once she'd used her ability to manifest her chakra outside of her body to form the seals required to raise an impenetrable barrier around the room.

"How exactly did you come by that information, Kushina-san; since the last time I checked it was a closely guarded clan secret that no one outside of our clan was to know?"

Satoshi cringed as he felt his father's eyes fall on him and heard the displeasure and disappointment in his voice and at the same time failed to hear the barely restrained concern that ran beneath the two former emotions. The burning shame he felt made his eyes water, though no tears fell, and he had to force himself to breathe normally least he forget how to breathe at all.

"Show him, Satoshi-kun."

"A…ano?"

"Take off your jacket and your shirt and show your father your injuries," Kushina clarified as she kept her eyes glued to Shibi, her sharp eyes noting the slight furrowing of his brow as his level of concern only grew the moment she'd made mention of an injury.

Satoshi hunched his shoulders but gave a stilted nod as he mechanically stood up as ordered and slowly unzipped and removed his jacket before carefully removing his shirt after sending a single fretful glance towards his father. He closed his eyes as he heard his father take a sharp breath as the still healing wounds were revealed. His entire body trembled as he felt his father's eyes raking over the diagonal gashes that ran from the top of his left shoulder and collarbone down to his right side where they disappeared beneath Satoshi's pants; the topmost gash sat precariously close to Satoshi's jugular and the lowest gash clearly had come within inches of emasculating Satoshi based upon its path as it disappeared beneath the waistline of his pants. The placement and depth of the still healing gashes painted a vivid picture of just how close his attacker had come to eviscerating the six and a half year old.

"What the hell happened to my son?" Shibi demanded in a tight, angry voice that promised pain to whoever was responsible for the still red and swollen wounds that were clearly only half healed. "Whoever is responsible had better damn well be dead or heads are going to roll. And what the hell do his wounds have to do with his bloodline limit?"

"Satoshi and his teammates had the misfortune to run into the Jinchuuriki of the Nibi during the second task and your son stepped between the partially transformed bijuu host and his fallen teammate. Your son then somehow managed to blast the Jinchuuriki with enough power to throw her over twenty meters away, knock her out, and half bury her beneath a cave-in without lifting a finger according to the report Izumo and Kotetsu gave me while your son spent over thirty hours in surgery and Satoshi later confirmed that he'd had absolutely no control over whatever it was that neutralized the partially transformed Jinchuuriki."

Shibi paled drastically over the course of Kushina's report and by the time she finished, he'd climbed to his feet, gathered Satoshi in his arms, and held the child close as he sat back down in his chair; the knowledge of just how close he'd come to losing his first son hitting the man rather hard. Very few adults (with the exception of Kage level shinobi or another host) could walk away from a one on one confrontation with a partially transformed Jinchuuriki and the fact that his six and a half year old son had not only faced a Jinchuuriki but had also managed to stop the Jinchuuriki long enough for him and his team to escape was nothing short of a miracle.

"As for Satoshi's revealing the secret about his Kekkei Genkai; don't be too hard on him because if he hadn't, he might have garnered far more scrutiny because I was ready to demand that Jinchuuriki's head on a platter after learning what happened. An investigation would have resulted in the information of how he'd fought back and knocked her away being spread far and wide; which would have been far worse. As it is, Ni'i Yugito and I came to an understanding and she's vowed to take what happened during the test to her grave. She also apologized and explained that she hadn't intended to harm him but that she'd been desperate because she'd had a death sentence hanging over her head. She gave Satoshi-kun a couple of scrolls containing a couple of water jutsu and some rare Fuuinjutsu seals that were thought to be lost out of guilt and regret for the injury she caused him."

"Satoshi-kun, is all of that true?" Shibi inquired softly, the older man seeking confirmation from his son about what happened.

"Hai, tousan."

"I take it his injuries were infected with the bijuu's demonic chakra and that is why they are healing so slowly?"

"Correct; he spent two weeks in bed once the second task was over and after he dropped out of the preliminaries due to the injury. He's also on medical restriction for at least another month with strict orders not to do any strenuous physical activities; I don't want to take any chances with him tearing those gashes open again."

"Again? I take it they opened at some point after his surgery?"

"A couple of times through no fault of his own; their placement was awkward enough that the slightest pressure would make them split if he twisted or pulled them on accident when standing up or sitting down, getting dressed or undressed, or while he slept. Once most of the demonic chakra faded from his system and from the wounds, it stopped happening but an extra month or maybe two to allow the damaged tissue time to heal and strengthen will be best in the long run."

"How much pain are you in, little bug?" Shibi asked gently as he shifted Satoshi so that the six year old was half draped across his lap so he could examine the healing injuries.

"Not much now. It really burned a lot at first and it felt like I'd been cut in half but what Kikaichu I had left helped keep me from loosing too much blood and they helped numb the pain when it got too bad. I'm… I'm sorry I failed; I didn't mean to be a disappointment."

"I don't care about the exam, little bug; all I care is that you are home in one piece, if not quite as uninjured as I'd hoped you'd be when you returned. And you are not a disappointment; I couldn't be more proud of you for what you did. It was very brave of you to protect your teammate, though I do wish you'd thought to place something other than your body between him and his attacker."

"I thought I'd have time to make a clone but she was faster than I expected her to be."

"Tomorrow, I would like you to allow Inoichi-san to see your memory of the incident so that he can see exactly what happened."

"Wakatta, tousan," Satoshi murmured around a yawn as he snuggled against Shibi's chest and shivered slightly.

"Put your clothes back on before you catch cold, little bug."

"I hate to interrupt, since I realize I've thrown quite a bit at you right now, but are you ever going to answer my question or even explain exactly what his bloodline limit encompasses?"

Shibi sighed as he allowed Satoshi to climb down off his lap so he could reclaim his shirt and jacket as he glanced up at Kushina and explained, "The answer to your question was never; we never intended for anyone outside of the family to learn about his Kekkei Genkai. The reason for that is because it's not a normal bloodline limit. In fact, his bloodline limit isn't truly a bloodline limit in the first place. Satoshi possesses a secondary form of energy that is completely separate from his chakra network and as far as we can tell, it is far wilder and harder to control than chakra. It has sat dormant these past four and a half years; though it did give Satoshi difficulties in the beginning when we were first trying to teach him how to find and mold his chakra. Tousan and I worried that if word of his Kekkei Genkai were to make it to the general public that he'd be targeted by another village; either to steal him away or to kill him."

"I didn't realize that you considered me to be part of the general public," Kushina dryly shot back as she imperiously arched her eyebrow. "Last I checked I was a friend of the family and the Jounin assigned to help him reach his full potential. How can I possibly do that if I don't know what he is capable of doing? What if his Kekkei Genkai had acted up during a training session and hurt one of his teammates accidentally?"

"It wouldn't have," Satoshi interjected as he hesitantly crept back up to his father now that he was dressed, hoping that his father would allow him to sit and cuddle with him again; he needed the comfort after everything that had happened and the ongoing discussion. Shibi obliged him without hesitation and Satoshi sighed and let go of the tension and fear of rejection that had filled him as he snuggled into his father's arms.

"You don't know that…" Kushina countered only for Satoshi to cut her off.

"Yes, I do; it only ever bursts out like that if I'm really angry, really scared, badly injured, or if something or someone tries to kill me," Satoshi insisted as he latched onto his father's jacket with one hand as he turned his head to meet Kushina's gaze over the top of his dark sunglasses so she could clearly see his eyes.

"It saved me the night the man that killed my mother tried to kill me, it was what brought me to the forest where tousan found me, it was the reason I was locked in my mind after Obito-nii died (because losing my oniisan hurt too much), and it protected me after Yugito-san clawed me when I threw myself between her attack and Izumo-kun. It didn't attack the Hyuuga when they opened my tenketsu, it never attacked otousan or ojiisan when my Kikaichu were implanted or when they hatched, it did not lash out at the kids who bullied me in the Academy, it never stopped me from getting cuts and bruises during lessons, and it never once stirred during the many training sessions when you ran us into the ground."

"It should be against the law for six year olds to use logic in an argument," Kushina groused as she sighed and sagged in her seat. "Gomen nasai; I should not have allowed my anger to cloud my judgment for so long. This past month and a half has been extremely stressful and I've felt out of sorts since the day Kotetsu-kun and Izumo-kun carried your son out of the Circle of Death covered in bloody and torn clothes, pale as a ghost, and barely conscious. I'm certain the stubborn little gaki only stayed awake that long because he didn't want his teammates to be disqualified because of him."

"It would seem he's picked up a few bad habits from his Jounin sensei," Shibi teased to show he harbored no ill-will towards the younger Jounin as he reminded her of her own stubborn nature. "I am also quite certain that you were one of the best things to happen to my son; he is very fond of you and seeks your approval nearly as much as he seeks mine and my father's." Shibi smiled down at Satoshi who'd drifted off to sleep shortly after his passionate declaration about the wild power inside of him only seeking to protect not to harm. "Was there anything else you wished to discuss?"

"No… actually, yes. I wanted to tell you that Satoshi-kun behaved very professionally the entire time we were in Kumo; even after he'd been injured. He did mope after he dropped out of the exam but I think he knew better than the medics how serious his injuries were. I was spitting mad and frightened to death after learning how he'd been injured and how close to dying he came and he actually managed to snap me out of it; something only Minato managed to do previously, though his methods differed from my husband's."

"I should hope so… my little bug is far too young for you," Shibi replied with a small smile.

Kushina laughed softly as she released the barrier she had put up and let her eyes linger on Satoshi's sleeping form where he lay curled up in his father's arms. A flash of pain and regret flittered across her face as she wearily climbed to her feet and stated, "I've already filed his mandatory medical leave from active duty for the next four to eight weeks and he'll need to follow up with a medic sometime over the next couple of days. I wish I could have brought him home unharmed, Shibi."

"You brought him home alive and his injuries will heal; I could not have asked for more than that as we knew the risks when we gave you our permission to enter him in the exam. All I ask is that you wait at least a year before you allow him to attempt to retake them and that the next exam he attempts is hosted by Konoha, if at all possible."

"I'd like to wait at least three or four years before allowing him to try again but I don't think he'd allow me to push it back that far. Holding him off for a year should be doable though. I should be going; Minato is probably wondering what's keeping me. I'll stop by sometime on Monday to see how Satoshi is doing."

Shibi absently waved her off without bothering to get up, his attention firmly on his sleeping son. He was still sitting there some forty minutes later when Mayumi came looking for him. She paused in the doorway of the living room and watched her husband of almost four years cuddling their six and a half year old son as if he was still the tiny little toddler he'd found in the forest nearly five years earlier.

"What's wrong, love?" Mayumi asked softly as she finally slipped into the room and stepped up beside Shibi's chair.

"We almost lost him, Yumi-koi."

"What do you mean, koishi?"

"He almost died, Mayumi."

Mayumi gasped as she pressed a hand to her mouth and reached out to place a hand coated in healing chakra on Satoshi's forehead in order to run a brief diagnostic scan so she could reassure herself that he was there and that he was safe. Shibi settled a comforting hand on the middle of her back as she sat down on the arm of the chair the moment she finished and leaned against her husband for support and comfort.

"What happened? I could feel traces of foul chakra lingering in the wounds and my Kikaichu are agitated."

"His team ran into a Jinchuuriki and when he saw his teammate was in danger he threw himself in front of his teammate to protect him. He didn't have enough time to block the blow but managed to knock the host out. The fight ended at that point and his teammates got him to the medical staff as quickly as they could. What did you learn from the scan?"

"Not much; I only used a basic scan to check his immediate health and the foul chakra clinging to the injury interfered with the jutsu. He's got a very mild fever though and I suspect he might have picked up a mild infection due to how slowly the wounds appear to be healing. It is times like this that I wish I had focused medical jutsu instead of on healing tonics and tinctures when I took up my apprenticeship."

"There is no point in fretting about things we can't change; neither of us could have known Satoshi would run into a Jinchuuriki and up until now, your skills have been more than adequate to deal with the various minor injuries that have cropped up over the past few years. I'll take him to the hospital first thing in the morning to have Taji give him a more thorough check up. Kushina has already gone through the Yondaime and had him placed on medical leave for at least the next four weeks with a warning to take it easy so he'll be here where you can keep an eye on him and your balms and salves will help speed up the last leg of his recovery and hopefully reduce some of the scarring."

"Sometimes I wish you'd never have encouraged him to become a shinobi, koishi," Mayumi sadly confessed as she leaned down and pressed a kiss to Satoshi's brow.

"It might have been selfish of me but I needed him to be strong; I feared he'd fade away and leave us far sooner if I didn't train him to take up the hitai-ate," Shibi murmured softly as he let his fingers brush over the stylized leaf on the forehead protector that Satoshi still wore just above his left knee.

"Shino is waking again," Mayumi declared after several minutes of silence had passed; her swarm had been monitoring their youngest as he slept. "Supper is already on the table; that's what I'd come to tell you earlier. You should probably wake Satoshi-kun so he can eat something before he sleeps away the night."

"We'll be there in a few minutes."

* * *

The next morning, Shibi took Satoshi to the hospital first thing in the morning and Taji quickly scanned the half-healed gashes; probing carefully around the abdominal cavity to insure there were no internal complications. She then spent close to an hour using healing chakra to speed up the healing process a bit in order to sooth away the lingering pain, reduce the swelling, clear out the minor infection Mayumi had picked up on, and strengthen the healing tissue on either side of the five terrible gashes. When she finished, the wounds looked much healthier than they had before she started; though she refused to shorten the length of Satoshi's medical leave (not that Satoshi even tried to talk her into letting him return to training sooner – Kushina would have made him suffer the moment he was cleared for training if he dared do something so foolish).

Once they were finished at the hospital, the two of them stopped by the pharmacy to pick up a prescription for a weak course of antibiotics and mild pain killers to finish clearing out the minor infection and ease the lingering ache before they headed to the T and I building. Over the years, Satoshi had only ever been inside of the rather intimidating building twice; both times due to there being no one available to watch him and his father taking him with him to request a few hours off until a Genin team or one of Satoshi's usual minders could get him. On those previous visits, Satoshi had not been allowed beyond the reception area just inside the front doors.

That morning though, Shibi didn't hesitate to herd Satoshi through the double doors that led into the main facility as he headed straight to Inoichi's office with single-minded determination. Any protests the shinobi on duty at the front desk might have made died when Shibi (one of the most mild-mannered and usually unemotional agents working within the T and I department) sent a heated glare at the man over the top of his sunglasses. Satoshi felt more than a little embarrassed when his father lifted him up into his arms until he was ordered to close his eyes and keep his Kikaichu in check; a clear order not to explore the building as his father strode through the maze of hallways.

"Inoichi, open the door!" Shibi demanded after he tried the door to the Yamanaka's office only to find it locked and pounded on the door. "I know you are in there, senpai."

"Shibi what are you…? Why is Satoshi-kun with you? For that matter, what is Satoshi-kun doing passed the front desk?"

"Just let us in already and I'll explain."

The next hour was spent with Shibi showing Inoichi his confrontation and discussion with Kushina the evening before; his father choosing to allow his co-worker to mind delve for the memory instead of taking the risk of someone over hearing them discussing sensitive information. When he was finished, the blonde shinobi sat back and stared at Satoshi for a full minute before he collected himself and asked for and received permission to view the memory of the attack. He ended up viewing both the memory of the attack and the memory of the apology that Ni'i Yugito had given Satoshi just a week before the Tournament.

Arrangements were then made for Inoichi to stop by the Aburame compound in a couple of days once Shibi could arrange to have Kushina meet with him so that the three of them could discuss what Inoichi had learned from Satoshi's memories. Shibi then took Satoshi home where the pair was met just outside of the compound by a scowling Kakashi (the evidence that he was displeased only noticeable in the tilt of his visible eye and the way he'd crossed his arms over his chest since the rest of his face was hidden beneath his usual face mask).

Shibi had promptly left his son in the capable hands of the young Jounin with a strong reminder to Satoshi that he was to rest for the remainder of the day before the older man returned to work. Satoshi sighed as he sized up his fellow prodigy and wondered how much of a scolding he was going to get from the thirteen and a half year old. Surprisingly, he wasn't given a lecture as Kakashi instead smothered the six year old in his concern after he had learned that Satoshi had pulled what he termed an 'Obito'; risking his life for his teammate. Kakashi had apparently needed to make certain that Satoshi had indeed come home in one piece after hearing rumors that he'd been seriously injured from some of the other Genin that had attended the exams in Kumo.

The Monday after the teams returned to Konoha from Kumo, all of the Genin that participated in the Chuunin Exams had been called into the Hokage's office where Minato addressed the group for a few minutes before awarding Kotetsu, Izumo, Ibiki, and Anko a promotion to Chuunin. Minato then dismissed everyone but Satoshi so he could make certain the six year old was doing alright and tell him he was proud of him for saving his teammate but that he should also be more careful of his own health in the future. Satoshi was then formally introduced to the Toad Sannin, Jiraiya, who would be giving him lessons in fuuinjutsu over the duration of his medical leave since Kushina would be occupied with the other two members of Team Four.

And the adults in his life knew better than to give Satoshi a chance to grow bored.

Satoshi would spend the next four weeks studying advanced math and geography (Kushina had provided him with some outdated maps of the world outside of the Hidden Countries for him to study) in addition to the fuuinjutsu lessons to avoid the boredom of being on medical restriction. On top of that, he worked extensively on his chakra control using small stones in place of leaves for the leaf concentration exercise since he couldn't work on tree climbing or practice water walking at the moment. He also spent quite a bit of time talking to his grandfather about chakra affinities and the affects they had on the Kikaichu.

His fuuinjutsu lessons with Jiraiya were interesting; when the Sannin actually focused on their lessons and not on the nearest woman. Satoshi didn't exactly warm up to the Sannin; he disliked the man's close association with toads (many amphibians ate bugs after all) and perverted tendencies but he also didn't hate the man. The young shinobi found him funny and intelligent; so long as women weren't mentioned in his presence because then the Sennin would turn into a drooling idiot. The six and a half year old did treat the man with respect most of the time and paid close attention whenever the man discussed the various types of seals he knew or showed him how to create a specific seal array.

During that time, Kakashi, Kotetsu, and Izumo visited him at least once a day to play Shogi, Go, or card games with him and keep him up to date on everything Team Four was doing in his absence; Kakashi once again filling in for Satoshi.

Near the end of his second week of medical restriction, Satoshi was given a series of stretches that would help soften up the scar tissue that had formed around and beneath the gashes in order to help him regain the flexibility he'd lost due to the injury. He also started a physical therapy regime now that there were no chances the physical activities would split the wounds open again. The next two weeks were filled with pain for Satoshi as the various exercises pulled on the still tender and quite rigid scar tissue. Once his skin regained a measure of elasticity and the pain caused by the exercises tapered off, it didn't take him long for him to get himself back into shape.

Kushina would still make him take an additional four weeks of medical leave though, in order to make certain he was in top form and not just in shape; she wanted there to be no chance that his injuries would cause him later problems.

It was when Satoshi finally returned to active duty eight weeks after retuning to Konoha that Team Four learned that Kushina was five months pregnant. Kushina had learned about her pregnancy just after returning to Konoha but waited to say anything to her team until her condition would force her to start cutting back on missions and training. In order to make certain that their training didn't suffer due to her condition (which was considered a village secret due to her status as the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi) she brought in Kakashi and another Jounin by the name of Yamashiro Aoba to help them train.

Aoba mostly worked with Kotetsu and Izumo while Kushina and Kakashi confirmed Satoshi's chakra affinities towards earth and water. Kushina then taught both Kakashi and Satoshi several water jutsu (the redhead kunoichi having a strong affinity towards water). She started with the Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu, the Mizu Kawarimi, and the Mizu no Muchi since they required the least amount of chakra to perform. Kakashi, with the help of Obito's Sharingan, learned them almost instantly before turning around and helping Satoshi master the three jutsu.

While the two of them were working on that, Kushina approached Sarutobi Hiruzen, the happily retired Sandaime Hokage, in order to find someone to teach Satoshi some earth jutsu. Hiruzen's curiosity was piqued when he learned that Satoshi (who had been born outside of the Hidden Countries) had an affinity towards both earth and water; a trait usually found within the Senju Clan and which granted some individuals the ability to use the Mokuton Kekkei Genkai.

That was enough for the Sandaime to step forward to teach Satoshi (and by extension Kakashi) a few of the earth jutsu he'd learned from his sensei; the Nidaime Hokage. He ended up teaching the pair the Moguragakure no Jutsu, the Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu, and the Doryuu Heki as well as the water attack Daibakufu no Jutsu though Satoshi didn't quite have enough chakra to do more than make a little splash with the final jutsu once he actually managed to perform the jutsu.

Learning those seven jutsu, working on his kenjutsu, genjutsu, and fuuinjutsu, and continuing with his chakra control and chakra building exercises would keep Satoshi occupied for the next three months. At the same time, Kotetsu and Izumo were taking a few advanced classes at the academy in order to supplement their education now that they were Chuunin, spent time standing guard at the check in point at the main entrance to the village (under the watchful eye of Aoba), went on several B Ranked missions with Kakashi, and continued to train with Satoshi when time permitted.

On those days when his teammates were out of the village on higher ranked missions, Satoshi performed D Ranked missions around the village while paired with various newly graduated Genin teams. When Satoshi wasn't out training, on missions, or attending lessons, he spent his free time helping his mother with his little brother; learning how to properly hold his baby brother, how to change his diapers, and how to feed him. Satoshi doted on the little tick and often left several hundred Kikaichu to watch over him when he left the house for training or missions.

By the time Shino was six months old, which was about the same time Satoshi turned seven, the youngest Aburame could easily recognize his older brother and often squealed happily the moment he saw the older boy. Shibi and Mayumi were both pleased with how well the two boys had taken to each other; their earlier concerns about Satoshi being jealous or feeling left out unfounded (especially now that Satoshi knew he wasn't being replaced).

The two adults were also extremely pleased to see that Satoshi began openly displaying some of his earlier exuberance that had all but vanished after Obito died. The seven year old once again buzzing about the house in excitement in response to Shino's growing awareness and the fact that he no longer slept ninety percent of the time.

Satoshi's seventh birthday also marked the day when his kenjutsu training was taken to the next level as he was gifted his first true sword in the form of a pair of custom wakizashi blades made from chakra conductive metal. The two swords had been a gift to him from Kushina; much as she'd gifted both Izumo and Kotetsu with their first swords. Originally, Satoshi wasn't supposed to have earned his first sword until he reached his tenth birthday or when he could knock a practice blade out of Kushina's hand but Kushina and his father both wanted him to have the extra protection that the dual blades would offer him if he decided to throw himself between certain death and his teammates again.

The seven year old treasured those blades and he trained with them every chance he got so that he could make his sensei proud. He also never played around with the blades or treated them like toys; he had no wish to see them taken away from him if any of the adults in his life should ever think he wasn't mature enough to keep them. Kotetsu, Izumo, and Kakashi sparred with him often over the course of the next three months. Satoshi really wished he could spar against Kushina as well but she'd stopped participating in most training exercises two months before his birthday and mostly just supervised due to her pregnancy.

Just when things were finally settling into something resembling a comfortable routine, tragedy struck Konoha once more.

On the evening of October ninth, Kushina, Minato, and a handful of trusted shinobi snuck out of the village so that she could give birth in privacy and the village would be safe from the Kyuubi should the seal that kept the Kyuubi contained within Kushina fail during the birth. Minato was attending as both husband and father-to-be as well as to help maintain the seal during labor in order to help prevent the Kyuubi from breaking free. Everything was going just fine right up until the moment Minato and Kushina's son was born nineteen hours after they left the village and then all hell broke loose as someone attacked and killed their AnBu escort (which included Taji), murdered Sarutobi Biwako (the Sandaime's wife and Kushina's midwife), and attacked Minato, Kushina, and their son.

Minato rescued Naruto (his newborn son) from the masked man and whisked him away to safety which left Kushina open to attack for a critical few minutes. By the time Minato returned to his wife's side, their attacker had extracted the Kyuubi from Kushina and while Kushina was alive, she had been severely weakened. The Kyuubi in the mean time had gone berserk and began rampaging towards Konoha while their masked assailant attacked Minato in order to prevent the man from interfering with the Kyuubi's rampage. Alarms were sounded and every able bodied ninja within the village was called upon to protect the village and her citizens.

Satoshi and all of the other shinobi under the age of fourteen were relegated to watching over the civilians and children that were sent to the hidden caverns inside of the Hokage Monument while those shinobi that were between ages fourteen and eighteen were put in charge of escorting those not fighting to safety and running supplies and weapons to the older shinobi. All of the shinobi over the age of eighteen were sent out to help divert the nine-tailed fox away from the village unless they had medical training. Those with medical training were split between the hospital and the field to treat and move the injured as best they could in the madness.

Satoshi had also been instructed by his father to watch over Shino and Shinichi (his youngest cousin) because the rest of their Clan had gone to help subdue the bijuu. It was only the responsibility of watching over his brother and cousin combined with his duty to help protect the civilians that prevented Satoshi from panicking over the thought of his entire family and all of his friends fighting for their lives against the berserk bijuu. Somehow, the seven year old ended up being in charge of the academy students that were age eight or younger whose parents were currently out protecting the village.

He quickly put the older children to keeping the younger children occupied by having them tell stories, sing songs, and play quiet games. Several of the civilian mothers present helped out for which Satoshi was eternally thankful since there were far too many children present for him to keep an eye on them all even with a couple of the other Genin helping him since he had to keep his cousin out of trouble and carry his brother around in a sling on his chest.

It was a long, terrible night; one that Satoshi (along with the rest of Konoha's citizens that were over age of five) would never forget. With the coming of the dawn, the full extent of their losses would be revealed; hundreds of lives lost, hundreds more seriously injured, and large sections of the village laying in ruins. The Kyuubi had been contained once more but at a heavy price; the Yondaime Hokage had traded his life to seal the nine-tailed fox into a newborn child after Uzumaki Kushina, the former Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, perished during the course of the evening. Dozens of children had been orphaned as their parents had been killed during the attack and countless civilians left as widows or widowers as their spouses perished beneath the rampaging bijuu.

Satoshi's family had been hit hard with his grandfather Shoichi, his uncle Shikuro, his mother Mayumi, and several cousins dying during the attack. Shoichi, Shikuro, and eleven other clan adults had been killed when they attempted to subdue the fox or turn the demon away from the village while his mother had been crushed beneath falling debris on her way to the hospital. That was on top of losing Kushina who'd been like an older sister to him as well as his sensei and Minato who'd been more of an uncle to him than Shibi's older brother had been. Rin, who was also something of a sister to the seven year old, died early the next morning as well; succumbing to her injuries after she'd been hit by one of the Kyuubi's tails while trying to heal another injured shinobi enough to move him to the hospital.

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage, retook the mantel of Hokage two days later; just in time to preside over the memorial services for the fallen. That same day Satoshi closed himself off once more though he didn't end up locked in his mind like he had after Obito had died. He did, on the other hand, shut his emotions down completely; never smiling, never frowning, and never displaying anything but a blank face to the world. He also stopped speaking for the most part and when he did speak it was with as few words as possible and at a volume that was just a few hairs louder than a whisper.

Six days after being reinstated to office, Sarutobi shuffled all of the present team assignments. Team Four was officially disbanded with Kotetsu and Izumo being paired with another Chuunin to form a three man cell that would be taking missions outside of the village. Satoshi on the other hand, was placed on the newly made Team Twelve with Inuzuka Toshiro (age sixteen), his ninken partner Kariudo (a fully grown, large tan and dark gray wolfhound with long shaggy fur and standing nearly five feet at the shoulders when on all fours), and Hyuuga Nanami (a fifteen year old from the branch family of the prestigious clan) and assigned Yamashiro Aoba as their Jounin sensei.

If Satoshi resented his original team being dispersed, he gave no indication of it as he silently fell into the training program that Aoba put together in order to give the new Team Twelve a chance to get used to working together as a team. After having been friends with Hyuuga Tokuma during his year at the academy coupled with his long association with Kakashi's ninken summons, Satoshi was easily able to adjust his fighting style to compliment his new teammates and had little trouble keeping up with the older pair.

The fact that he'd spent a number of months being paired up with different teams after his injury also helped since he'd worked with the members of nearly every clan in the village at one point or another (the exceptions being the Senju, Sarutobi, and Uchiha clans). His new teammates on the other hand had a bit of trouble accepting the seven year old in the beginning because of his age, size, and mostly silent demeanor but they grudgingly accepted him after he demonstrated his competency in the various ninja skills and proved to be hard working despite his lack of height and young age.

Unlike his previous team, which had been very versatile, Team Twelve was strictly a tracking and scouting team. As such, they were frequently assigned C and B ranked escort and tracking missions where their skills were best put to use. Occasionally, they would also provide support on B and A ranked missions alongside an offensive oriented team when they were expected to run into bandits, missing nin, or hostile shinobi from other countries where their scouting talents could help avoid ambushes and traps.

Shibi mournfully watched his oldest son withdrawing once again and offered the seven year old what comfort he could but was hard pressed to find the time to check up on him as often as he wished. After the death of his father, Shibi had become the Head of the Aburame Clan and he was forced to split his time between his job with the T and I Department, running the Clan, and raising his nephew and younger son. It didn't help that after a month of teamwork training, Satoshi's new team spent close to eighty percent of their time outside of the village carrying out missions alongside of the other active teams.

Kakashi might have been able to help keep Satoshi emotionally centered if not for his own grief over the loss of Minato (who'd been both foster father and mentor to the young Jounin for seven years) and his only remaining teammate. It didn't help that the fourteen year old prodigy joined the AnBu about a month after the Kyuubi attack and closed off his emotions (much like Satoshi had).

* * *

**Translations:** Japanese to English

Ano – um/uh  
Arigatou – Thank you  
Daibakufu no Jutsu – Grand Waterfall Technique  
Doryuu Heki – Earth Style Wall  
Gaki – brat  
Gomen nasai – I'm sorry (somewhat informal)  
Hai – yes  
Kariudo – hunter  
Kekkei Genkai – bloodline limit  
Koi – love (also a carp) and in this case used as a form of affectionate address (at least that was my understanding)  
Koishi (also spelled koishii) – dear, beloved, darling  
Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu – Water Clone Technique  
Mizu Kawarimi – Water Replacement  
Mizu no Muchi – Whip of Water  
Moguragakure no Jutsu – Mole Hiding Technique  
Nanami – girl's name meaning seven seas  
Nani – what  
Ne – used at the end of a sentence for emphasis or clarification; similar to the word 'right' being placed at the end of a question or statement in the English language  
Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu – Double Suicide Decapitation Technique  
Toshiro – boy's name meaning clever son  
Wakatta – I understand/understood

**Notes:**

* Rin's Death – yes, I know that Rin's death as depicted in this chapter is non-canon. When I first wrote this chapter, well over two years ago, there was very little known about Rin's death aside from the fact that she'd died sometime between the events in Kakashi Gaiden and the start of the series. The same is true for the timing of Kakashi's entry into the AnBu Corps as I only just caught up enough with the anime to learn that Minato had been the one to induct him into the Corps.

I thought about updating this story with the new information about when and how Rin died and with the new information about Kakashi's entrance into the AnBu but eventually decided against it when I realized that it would throw off a later sub-plots of the story. That said, I did warn everyone that this story would be AU for both universes.


	6. Life Goes On

**Disclaimer:** _All HP characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies and all Naruto characters are the property of Masashi Kishimoto. This is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites._

**Warnings:** _Mild to moderate violence, character death, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), some moderate Dumbledore bashing (he's more manipulative than evil but mostly just stubborn), and who knows what else. _

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

* * *

Chapter 5: Life Goes On

Satoshi's eighth birthday found Team Twelve traveling towards Suna to participate in the Chuunin Exams. The past ten months had wrought a considerable change in the once happy and carefree boy and if his friends and former teammates could see him now, they'd be saddened by the rather stone-faced and unemotional shinobi that had risen out of the ashes of his grief. As it was, Satoshi rarely saw anyone outside of his father, brother, and current teammates because of how busy everyone had been since the Kyuubi's attack. The entire village had struggled to present a strong front during those same ten months to avoid being painted as an easy target to their enemies on top if their efforts to rebuild what had been damaged during the attack.

Over the course of the nine and a half months after their formation, Team Twelve learned to work well enough together, though the older three members of the team often wondered if Satoshi was emotionally attached to the team or not since he never displayed any emotion. Aoba had, at first, hesitated over nominating his team to participate in the Chuunin Exams but he knew the older two had more than earned the chance to attempt the exams and signed them up at the last minute. The fact that Satoshi had previously participated in an exam meant that there was no real reason not to allow the eight year old another shot at the exams as well.

They had missed out on the chance to take the exams in Konoha as they'd been out on a escort mission at the time and because Aoba was not aware of the agreement Kushina had previously made with Shibi about Satoshi's next attempt at a promotion taking place within the village, he put his team forth for the exams in Suna the night before the teams were due to leave.

Shibi wouldn't learn of their acceptance into the exams until after they'd already left for Suna; Satoshi had left him a note when they missed each other by mere hours on the day the teams left Konoha. Shibi was less than pleased that there had been little to no warning about his son heading off to his second attempt at the Chuunin Exams and silently cursed Aoba for not speaking to him first. He then went to his supervisor and promptly demanded to be given at least five weeks off so that he could join his son in Suna and train him if he should pass the first two portions of the test.

He was granted the time off with little hesitation and Shibi spent the next two weeks taking care of anything that wouldn't be able to wait. Two weeks after the five teams participating in the task had left the village, Shibi made his way to Suna with a few other Jounin and a small handful of Chuunin (including Kotetsu and Izumo) who were interested in watching the elimination rounds after the second task and help train those Genin from Konoha that made it into the Tournament. Safely strapped into a carrier on his back, Shibi carried an eighteen month old Shino; three year old Shinichi had long since returned to the care of his mother after she'd been released from the hospital five months earlier.

Unaware that his father was pulling strings in order to follow him to Suna, Satoshi entered the Suna Academy alongside his older teammates and the three of them slipped into the classroom where the written portion of the test would be held with little trouble. The protocol for the exam was nearly identical to what it had been when he'd participated in the Kumo Exams and Team Twelve had no problems completing the written portion of the exam in record time; and they hadn't even needed to resort to cheating. The trick question at the end involved Suna's Jounin administer stating that they would be required to face their fears in order to pass; the proctors of the exam claimed to have gathered detailed information about each Genin's fear from their Jounin sensei over the course of their stay in Suna before the exams actually began.

Satoshi saw through the bluff immediately because he knew that Aoba had no clue about his greatest fear since he'd not exactly opened up to his new team and he was the first one to stand up to accept the challenge with his two teammates scrambling to follow his lead. The moment the door closed behind them after they walked into the room where they were to face their fears, screams rang out; though the members of Team Twelve never opened their mouths. As he'd guessed, the threat had been a bluff and the three of them passed the first portion of the test because they'd been willing to face their fears in order to continue the 'mission'. The screams had actually been one of eight random recordings that were played the moment the door closed in order to shake up those Genin that were still on the other side of the door; a rather cruel psychological attack designed to weed out the weak-willed and weak-minded.

Of the sixty-seven teams that had entered the Chuunin Exams, only thirty-three would be participating in the second task and of the five teams that had been sent from Konoha, only four of them had passed the first portion of the exam. Out of the ninety-nine Genin moving onto the next task, Satoshi was by far the youngest at eight with the next youngest being an eleven year old boy from Suna by the name of Otokaze. Once the final passing team stepped through the door, the ninety-nine Genin were informed that they were to present themselves at the entrance to the village at eight o'clock sharp the following morning in order to participate in the second task and that those who were late would be disqualified.

Satoshi was up well before dawn the next morning and he took a quick sponge bath, pausing for a few minutes to stare at the five diagonal scars that marred his torso before he dressed in his usual dark red pants, turtleneck, knee high boots, and blood-red high collared jacket. He secured his hitai-ate above his left knee and replaced the dark red bandana on his forehead; a fond but bittersweet memory of the day Obito had given him that particular bandana crossing his mind briefly before he began strapping his various weapons and storage pouches into place.

He had two cases of senbon attached to his right thigh, another case attached to his left thigh, two utility pouches hooked onto the back of his belt (one holding kunai, pre-made exploding tags, a medical kit, and storage scrolls containing a survival kit, camping equipment, and a large supply of food and the other pouch containing blank seal tags, blank scrolls, several bottles of different colored ink, paintbrushes, pens, pencils, an eraser, a penknife and a small bag of drying sand). Lastly, strapped crosswise across his back was the matched pair of wakizashi blades that Kushina had given to him a year earlier on his seventh birthday.

The eight year old glanced at his reflection one last time before he returned to the hotel room he was sharing with the rest of his team. He settled himself on the window sill while he waited for his teammates to wake, focusing on his Kikaichu to make certain they were prepared for the upcoming trial; his swarm only numbering around nine thousand individual bugs because he hadn't fully replaced all of those he'd lost during his first Chuunin Exam. His water bugs were currently unhappy at being in the middle of a desert but they were otherwise healthy since they remained safely tucked inside of his body. The rest of his swarm was in top form; including the five hundred or so that he'd sent out to explore the village the moment they'd arrived.

His teammates would rise at exactly six-thirty to prepare for the day and Satoshi only paid them half a mind as he continued to monitor the Kikaichu that were exploring the village. Once they were ready, he would follow along behind the two teens as they met up with the other three Konoha teams that had passed the first task. The twelve Genin then traveled through the village towards the assigned meeting point in a single group in order to reduce the risks that another village's team might ambush them to knock them out of the running before the second task even started.

The four Konoha teams participating in the task would be the third group to arrive at the meeting place, those teams from Suna being the first and two teams from Kusa being the second. At eight sharp, a dozen Sand Jounin arrived and escorted the thirty-three teams out of the village (none of the Genin teams daring to be late because they hadn't wanted to be disqualified). The Jounin led them north along the manmade cliff that surrounded Suna for several miles, until half an hour later the entire group came to a stop overlooking an oval canyon where they could see a huge circular construct taking up the middle of the canyon floor. Around the outside of the strange, squat building were huge sandstone doors; each one with seven deadbolts locking them in place.

"Welcome to the Caverns," the same Sand Jounin from the day before announced with a feral grin and far too much excitement. "The second task of your Chuunin Exams will be taking place within the maze that was built inside of the Caverns. The objective of the task is to collect four stone tablets…" The man held up a square tile made from quartz with the kanji for air carved onto it, a granite with the kanji for light on it, a square tile made from sandstone marked with the kanji for earth, and a fourth square tile made from coral with the kanji for water.

"…of which there are exactly fourteen of each type scattered throughout the maze. In order to pass this part of the exam your team must have one of each tablet, all four tablets must be undamaged, and all three members of your team must be alive when you reach the center of the maze. You will have fourteen days in which to find your tablets and navigate your way to the heart of the maze. In two weeks time, if you have not collected a set of tablets and reached the center of the maze, your team fails this task."

A flurry of worried murmurs broke out amongst the gathered Genin; a number of the older shinobi shifting nervously as they stared down at the ominous looking building sitting at the base of the canyon. Satoshi thought the Caverns sounded suspiciously similar to the Circle of Death; meaning that the maze was filled with deadly creatures and hidden traps with the added element of dead ends and confusing turns added in for fun. The fact that they were being given a total of fourteen days (instead of the seven that had been given to get through the Circle in Kumo) meant that it was much harder to navigate the maze than it was to travel through the seventy miles of caverns and tunnels beneath Kumo's Administration Building.

Unless the extra days were because the tablets were well hidden and they wanted to give everyone a fighting chance to get all four. Before Satoshi could give the matter any more thought, the Jounin had continued speaking and he turned his attention back to older man.

"A word of caution to those of you who enjoy causing explosions," the shinobi solemnly intoned. "Once you enter the maze you will be underground and any explosion that weakens the structure of the maze will bring the entire thing down around your ears. Likewise, those of you thinking to use a doton jutsu to make shortcuts are advised against trying to shift the walls of the maze since you will weaken the supports keeping the ceiling above your heads. Any questions? No? Good… for those of you who are considering quitting, now is the time to do so; once you are inside of the maze there is no backing out of this task. If you are prepared to start the task; please step forward with your teammates to sign the waver and your team will be escorted to an entrance."

There was never any hesitation in any of the twelve Genin from Konoha about backing out at this point and the lot of them stepped forward at the same time in order to collect the waivers. Once they had signed the forms, Team Twelve was led down into the canyon to one of the huge doors built into the structure. The closer they got to the round building the larger it got until the walls of the building were looming above their heads ominously. Satoshi silently wondered if Obito would have been nervous if he'd faced the same challenge three years earlier instead of earning a field promotion before he ruthlessly shoved the thought out of his mind as their guide began unlocking the seven deadbolts that held the door shut fast.

"Go ahead and step inside; the inner gate will open at exactly nine-thirty signaling the start of the task."

The moment they were all the way inside, the man behind them closed the door, shutting out the only source of light as the sound of the deadbolts being shoved home filled the room. Satoshi immediately dug into the left hand utility pouch on his belt, pulled out a flare, and activated it so he could check out their surroundings with his two teammates doing the same a heartbeat later. The three of them then spent several minutes inspecting the gate blocking the entrance to the maze as well as every inch of the small rock and dirt room they found themselves in.

"Cozy little room," Nanami declared sarcastically as she wrinkled her nose at the dank smell that permeated the room.

"Smells like mold," Toshiro added and Kariudo woofed disdainfully in agreement as the ninken sniffed around the gate leading deeper into the Caverns. "See anything worthwhile on the other side?

"No; the walls are sealed to prevent anyone from seeing beyond them but there are no barriers to prevent anything from passing through the holes in the gate," Nanami replied with a huff as she activated her Byakugan in order to scan the area beyond the gate and immediately found a barrier had been erected to prevent her from seeing beyond the room in which they'd been locked.

"Not really surprising," Toshiro replied as he leaned against the wall and turned towards the youngest member of their team. "Satoshi-kun, can you…?"

"They're already inside," Satoshi murmured in his now standard quiet monotone; referring to the fact that he'd already sent a number of Kikaichu through the gate to explore the maze without waiting for the others to tell him to do so.

"How long until the gate opens?" Nanami inquired as she turned away from the gate.

"Fifteen minutes."

Toshiro and Nanami then spent the time remaining debating the merits of hunting down a set of tablets verses laying traps to steal some other team's tablets while Satoshi monitored his swarm's progress. They'd just decided to hunt for the tablets and ambush only if they couldn't find all four within the first seven days when the gate squealed as it began retracting up into the ceiling. Uncertain if the gate would stay open or close after a certain amount of time, the three Genin and one ninken quickly stepped out of the room.

Once inside of the maze, the quartet paused just long enough for Satoshi to point them in the direction they would need to travel in. Nanami scanned the tunnels every five to ten minutes to check for threats (both living and non-living); though she could only scan the tunnels they were traveling through since the Byakugan could not see through the walls of the maze due to the composition of dirt, rocks, and minerals that made up the walls. Toshiro and Kariudo continuously scented the air for pockets of poison, dangerous gasses, and hidden enemies that escaped Nanami's hindered eyes.

Satoshi in the mean time played navigator as his Kikaichu flew and crawled through the maze unseen by both the denizens of the Caverns and their competitors. It only took Satoshi's swarm three hours to discover there were multiple levels to the maze with each level representing a different element. Once they had that information, it didn't take them long to figure out that the four tiles that were required to collect had been hidden in the level that represented the element that had been carved onto each tile. The four of them then systematically moved through the levels to find and gather the tiles while doing their best to avoid the other teams.

Team Twelve would set a new record for Suna's Chuunin Exam as they cleared the deadly maze in less than seventy-two hours; mostly thanks to Satoshi's Kikaichu and Nanami's Byakugan. That gave them eleven days in which to rest and train, plenty of time to assess the other thirteen teams that passed the second portion of the exam, and enough free time that they could explore the underground oasis that made up the heart of the maze. The three Genin were careful not to reveal exactly how they found one of each tile so fast or made it through the maze so quickly since they didn't want to give up any advantages.

The majority of shinobi just assumed it was Nanami's Byakugan that allowed them to clear the maze while Kariudo's nose led them to the tablets; few of them believing that Satoshi could have contributed much to the task due to his age and size. Aoba was just thankful that the three of them had made it through the task without getting injured; the Jounin well aware of just what kind of creatures lived within the maze and just how cruel some of the older Genin could be in their efforts to win.

There had been a few encounters with some of the deadlier inhabitants of the Caverns, namely the leeches in the underground lakes on the lowest level, the sand worms within the maze itself, the giant lizards on the third level, and the giant rocs in the uppermost caverns but the three of them (plus the ninken) managed alright. Satoshi used his water bugs to neutralize the leeches and his affinity towards creepy crawlies meant that the sand worms (which were actually a species of giant centipede) didn't bother them overly much while those that did were quickly and easily dispatched.

The giant lizards and birds of the upper two levels, on the other hand, had been a bit more of a pain though Toshiro and Kariudo dealt with both quite adequately while Nanami helped them to avoid most of the overgrown creatures with her Byakugan. Satoshi mostly hung back during those encounters; both creatures well known for being carnivorous and he was still small enough to make a tasty treat for the enormous creatures; leaving him to provide backup from a distance through his Kikaichu and some of his mid to long ranged jutsu (like the water whip).

On the fourteenth day, at exactly twelve o'clock in the afternoon, all fourteen teams that had passed were asked to gather beside the manmade lake in the center of the underground oasis so they could be given the details regarding the third and final task of the Chuunin Exam. Only one other team from Konoha had made it through the second task and the six Leaf Genin stood together off to one side of the other teams as an unfamiliar Sand kunoichi stepped forward to address them.

"Congratulations," the woman called out as she let her eyes take in all fourteen teams. "You have each shown that you have the resourcefulness or ruthlessness necessary to successfully navigate your way through the Caverns within the time limit. However, only thirty of you may continue on to fight in the Tournament and that means you'll be required to fight in a series of preliminary rounds in order to determine which twelve of you will be eliminated from the exams."

There was a bit of grumbling that broke out over that revelations from several of the participants but Satoshi had expected it since he well remembered the preliminary rounds that he'd been forced to drop out of during the last Chuunin Exam he'd taken part in. He was mildly pleased that he and his teammates had had eleven full days to relax and that none of them had been injured during the task (not counting a few scrapes and bruises); though you couldn't tell just by looking at him.

"We will be dividing you into three groups with one person from each team being placed into each group," the kunoichi continued once the muttering had been died out. "You will then face one opponent, who will be randomly selected, from each of the other two groups. You will be awarded points for technique, power, creativity, the number of hits landed on your opponent, how quickly you dispatch your opponent for each of the two battles you will participate in, and ten points for each match you win. The thirty people with the highest scores at the end of the three rounds will be the ones to participate in the Final Tournament. Are there any questions? No? Then please find your teammates and line up in a single line, three to a row, so we may assign you to your group."

Team Twelve ended up somewhere around the middle of the line due to the pushing and shoving taking place by the older Genin from the other villages. Ten minutes later, Satoshi accepted a folded slip of paper with his group assignment on it and opened it to find he'd been placed in the B group with Nanami being assigned to A and Toshiro ending up in C. A year and a half ago, Satoshi might have been concerned about facing one of his teammates in a spar but the eight year old hadn't really grown attached to his new teammates like he had been to Kotetsu and Izumo despite the fact that they'd been together nearly a full year now.

Splitting off to join the other Genin that had been assigned to the same group as him, Satoshi nodded cordially to his two teammates; an equivalent of any other shinobi wishing the two of them good luck. The other Konoha Genin in his group was unknown to Satoshi so the two of them didn't gravitate towards each other as some of the other Genin from different villages tended to do. In fact, the eight year old stood separated from the rest of the shinobi in the B group by a good five feet and instead of feeling uncomfortable or singled out; the eight year old stoically accepted the fact that he was once again alone.

Rather than allow himself to become nervous while he waited, Satoshi used that time to study the Genin in the other two groups while all of them waited for the preliminaries to start. He paid extra close attention to those individuals that were from villages that had hostile or rocky relationships with Konoha; such as Iwa, Kumo, and Kiri. He also did his best to categorize each of his potential opponents by fighting styles based upon their visible weapons and uniforms as well as their village of origin.

Forty-eight minutes later, Satoshi faced a seventeen year old Sand Genin from the A group on the sandy beach just beside the manmade lake that sat in the center of the oasis. Their match lasted less than ten minutes as Satoshi used an earth jutsu that the Sandaime had taught him to block the teen's wind jutsu before using the water whip Kushina had taught him to pull the teen off his feet while his burrowing Kikaichu burst up out of the ground and drained the teen's chakra. During the entire time, Satoshi hadn't said a single word and had not moved a single muscle except to form the needed hand signs for both jutsu and use the whip to trip up the other Genin.

He was awarded eight points for technique (he had used two different elements in his attacks alongside his bugs), eight points for power (his age contributed to this score as the two jutsu he'd used were considered high C ranked jutsu), seven points for creativity, only a six for number of hits (since he'd technically only landed two hits on his opponent), a nine for time (his match the shortest match so far), and ten points for the win; giving him a total of forty-eight points. It was not the highest score so far but it was still high enough that he had a good chance of making the cut to participate in the Tournament so long as he won and scored equally as well in his second match.

As Satoshi stepped off the battle field after he had received his scores, he was surprised to learn from his Kikaichu that his father, brother, and a number of other familiar faces were in the audience and if anyone could have seen behind his dark sunglasses, they would have seen his green eyes briefly light up in pleasure; the only sign of emotion he allowed himself. He sent several Kikaichu to greet his father and Shino even as he took a seat a short distance away from the other Genin in group B and turned his attention back to the matches in order to continue assessing the other Genin.

Not long after Satoshi's match, Toshiro would lose his first match and end up with a score in the low twenties while Nanami would win her match and earn a score several points higher than Satoshi's score. Satoshi was not surprised by either outcome; Toshiro had gone into his match overly confident because he'd been facing a kunoichi and Nanami had in turn faced an over confident shinobi that thought he'd have an easy win against a girl. The eight year only shook his head in response to both matches because he knew better than to underestimate an opponent regardless of their gender; that was a lesson that Kushina had taught Team Four during their first year together.

The eight year old's second match was considerably harder as he faced a twenty-three year old Genin from Kiri whose arsenal and mastery of water jutsu far exceeded Satoshi's. That match ended up being the longest match of the preliminaries, lasting nearly forty-five minutes as the two of them practically went toe to toe; the older Genin hitting Satoshi with everything he had. Satoshi's speed and agility stood him in good stead though as he avoided all but a handful of hits from the attacks that had rained down on him.

He ended up in a rather brutal and mostly one-sided kenjutsu battle towards the end of the fight which is where he took more than a few hits. Luckily, most of them nothing more than slight scratches though he did end up with a stab wound in his left thigh and a few nasty bruises from the punches and kicks that had been landed during the sword fight. His winning combo used a smokeless replacement jutsu to swap out with an insect clones that he had formed beneath the ground that he allowed the Kiri Genin to 'kill' before pulled off the Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu.

The moment that the other Genin had been buried up to his neck in the sand, Satoshi's swarm converged on the trapped man to drain his chakra once the older Genin could no longer use any suiton jutsu to fling them away. He earned a rather generous fifty-six points for that match which brought his total score up to one hundred five and guaranteed him a place in the Tournament. Nanami would also be moving on to the final task as she'd ended up with a total of one hundred ten points. Toshiro's total score fell in the seventies; meaning he would most likely be one of the twelve Genin dropped from the Tournament even though he'd managed to win his second match.

Once the final match had been fought, the names of the twelve Genin who would be disqualified were announced and the date of the Tournament was revealed. Unlike the Tournament Rounds in Kumo and Konoha where they were informed which Genin they would be facing in the first round, they learned that the finals would proceed in much the same fashion as the preliminaries had; with the Genin being split into six random groups and the first round consisting of five battles (each) that would be scored using the same criteria that had been used for the preliminaries.

Each Genin would need both a minimum score and at least three wins to pass into the second round which would then fall into the normal Tournament style of one-on-one elimination matches until only one person remained undefeated. The reason Suna did their exams this way was to give all of the Genin participating more of a chance to showcase their skills in order to make a more informed decision on which individuals should be promoted instead of leaving it to guess work after only watching each Genin fight once or twice.

All thirty Genin participating in the Tournament would then spend the next four weeks endlessly training in preparation for the Tournament. Satoshi happily trained with his father during that time; though you wouldn't know it to look at him. The main focus of his training was to get him comfortable traveling over and fighting on loose sand to negate the risk of a misstep during a match costing him his life. His father also taught him two new clan techniques now that he'd lost the element of surprise after the rest of the Tournament participants had seen him using his swarm.

Izumo and Kotetsu eagerly helped with his training and though the pair was saddened when Satoshi didn't show any of his former enthusiasm, they did their best not to let his emotionless façade get them down. Aoba in the mean time trained Nanami with Toshiro's help since the Inuzuka had indeed missed the point cut off by fifteen points and had therefore been one of those dropped from the Tournament as Satoshi had predicted. The twenty-three year old Satoshi had faced in his second round had managed to make it into the third task of the exams due to the relatively high score he'd received for giving a good accounting during the match against Satoshi even though he lost.

On the day of the Tournament, the thirty Genin that would be participating met inside of the Suna Stadium at six-thirty in the morning where they were handed yet another slip of paper with both a letter and a number written on it. The letter represented which group they had been assigned to while the number indicated which individuals from the other groups they'd be facing during the matches (those bearing the same number facing each other). Satoshi was placed in the E group and assigned the number two which meant that his first match would take place in the third set of the first round (A vs. B first, C vs. D second, and E vs. F third).

The rest of the matches would play out as follows; A vs. D, B vs. E, C vs. F, B vs. D, A vs. F, C vs. E, A vs. C, B vs. F, D vs. E, B vs. C, A vs. E, and D vs. F. The order of the matches had been designed to allow each Genin a chance to rest for at least on match in between their assigned fights in order to give each participant a fair chance at moving on to the second round of the Tournament. The other four numbered groups would follow the same schedule for simplicity's sake.

To manage the large number of matches more efficiently, the stadium had been divided into five equal sections with a sixth section in the center where the Genin would wait between matches. That would allow for five matches to take place simultaneously with each match having a time limit of fifteen minutes to insure no one match upset the schedule of the entire Tournament. At the end of the fifteen minutes, if there is no clear winner, the participant with the most points earned during the match would be given the win for that match.

There would then be a five minute break in between each match to allow for the fields to be cleaned and repaired so that no one Genin was placed at a disadvantage before they even stepped out onto the field. All told, the first round of the Tournament would see a total of one hundred and fifty matches fought over the course of approximately seven and a half hours.

With five arenas to watch, only four Konoha Genin participating, and a total of ten Jounin and eight Chuunin present; the higher ranked shinobi drew lots to determine their assigned duties for duration of the first round. Five of the Jounin were assigned to monitor the five arenas; one Jounin focusing on each arena to observe all thirty matches that would take place in that arena. The next four Jounin were each tasked to observe one of the four participating Genin through all five of their first round matches.

The final Jounin would be stationed in the rest area to make certain their Genin weren't attacked between matches by another participant. And all eight Chuunin would be split up into pairs to watch over the eleven Konoha Genin that had not made it into the Tournament (to make certain they stayed out of trouble). The reason for splitting themselves up in such a way was so that they could monitor the competitors from other villages, keep an eye on all fifteen of their Genin, and insure that the four Genin participating in the Tournament were evaluated by at least two sets of eyes.

Shibi made it perfectly clear that he would be watching his son when the assignments for the Jounin were divvied up and no one dared argue with him. Genma, who'd made the journey with Shibi, managed to get himself assigned to the same arena so he could see for himself how much the little bug had grown over the years. Izumo and Kotetsu fully intended to watch their former partner and cheer for him during his matches while watching over a trio of Genin; the two pranksters even managed to somehow wrangle front row seats in the stadium right above the arena where Satoshi would be battling.

Satoshi fought his five battles with as little effort as needed to gain the win, though he lost his fifth and final match because he'd just been too exhausted and hadn't had enough time to rest in between his fourth and fifth fight. He'd done remarkably well though; receiving a total score of two hundred fifteen out of a possible three hundred which earned him a place in the top ten scores at number seven and only one of eight Genin that won more than three matches. Only two participants had won all five of their matches; one was Nanami (her Byakugan and her clan's Juuken Ryuu style taijutsu seeing her come out on top each time) and the twenty-three year old Genin from Kiri that Satoshi had faced during the preliminaries.

After the first round of the Tournament was over, the twenty Genin that would move on to the second round were given the remainder of the day to rest and recoup and told to return to the stadium no later than eight o'clock the next morning or they would be disqualified. Satoshi would spend most of the afternoon and all night sleeping under the watchful eye of his father after eating an early light supper so he could be well rested for the second round. When they returned to the stadium the next morning, they found the individual arenas gone since the rest of the matches would be fought one at a time.

Once the clock struck eight, they were told to pick a slip of paper out of a hat to determine who they'd be facing first and in what order they would be fighting. Satoshi drew the number five as did a Kumo shinobi; meaning that the two of them would face each other in the fifth match of the second round. Nanami drew a number one and would face the Kiri Genin that Satoshi had defeated during the prelims. Nanami would lose her match in short order; the Kiri Genin had too much to prove because he was still smarting over his loss to an eight year old in the preliminaries.

The next three battles saw Genin from Suna, Kusa, and Taki winning their matches against opponents from Kiri, Suna, and Suna respectfully. Satoshi then won his match against the Kumo Genin, who'd been injured the previous day during the first round making it a rather easy win for Satoshi who'd not been injured. The remaining five matches saw one Genin each from Ame, Yuki, Kumo, and two more from Suna passing onto the next round. That concluded the second round of the Tournament with the next round due to take place later that afternoon.

Satoshi exited the stadium knowing that he'd be facing the Ame Genin that had beat him in his fifth match of the first round for a second time later that afternoon and he was determined to win this time. Tension was high when they reconvened that afternoon as the ten participants of what would be the third round of the Tournament met in the stadium once more. The twenty-three year old from Kiri once again won his match (which happened to be the first match of the afternoon) while the second match ended up in a double knockout as the Genin from Kuso and Taki knocked each other out after a forty minutes intense ninjutsu battle.

Satoshi then wiped the floor with the Ame Genin he faced as the guy had gone into the battle feeling cocky because he'd won the match the previous day simply because Satoshi had been exhausted at the time. The two battles after his match saw the Genin from Yuki winning while the older of the two Suna Genin facing each other in the final round won. The end of round three marked the end of the second day of the Tournament as there had been no time limits on the elimination rounds.

Satoshi was actually glad that he'd be able to get another night's rest as he would once again face the twenty-three year old from Kiri in the first match of the fourth round. The eight year old was actually very worried about the upcoming match; he'd seen the seething glares and cruel sneers the older Genin had directed his way throughout the first three rounds of the Tournament. Shibi hadn't missed the looks that the Kiri Genin had been giving Satoshi either and his father made a point to let Satoshi know that there was no shame in forfeiting if at any time his life was threatened. Satoshi acknowledged his father's words but made no comment on them.

At eight o'clock for the second morning in a row, Satoshi was standing on the stadium floor; waiting calmly on the sand as he faced the twenty-three year old. The angry Genin's whispered promise to send Satoshi home in a matchbox was not unexpected, given the man's behavior over the past two days, though Satoshi showed no outward sign that he'd even heard the Genin's threat. Inside, Satoshi was torn between forfeiting and making the Genin eat his words; fear and anger battling against the calmness he was maintaining by sheer willpower alone.

He wasn't about to give the older shinobi the satisfaction of drawing any kind of reaction from him; he was too stubborn and proud.

That match was just as brutal as their first match; if no where near as long and once again Satoshi squeaked out a win against the older Genin. This time it was due to his magic coming into play in order to save his life. He'd been blasted by a violent water jutsu (the blow breaking several of Satoshi's ribs and bruising him from neck to knees when it hit) just ten minutes into the fight and he'd ended up stuck in the mire of quicksand that the arena had turned into as a result. In pain and having trouble breathing, Satoshi was resigned to forfeiting the match knowing he'd never last through another sword fight in his current condition.

He never had a chance to speak out though as the Kiri Genin bore down on him intending to behead him with his katana and Satoshi had desperately used Doryuu Heki to throw up a protective wall around him. His magic, reacting to his pain and desperation, had lashed out to transform the dirt wall into concrete at the last second and the Kiri Genin slammed into the cement wall hard when his powerful water jutsu failed to wash the hastily made mud colored concrete wall away as expected. The impact had knocked the man out cold and breaking both of his arms (his hands had been out of front of him holding his sword when he crashed into the wall at a full out run that had been chakra enhanced).

The unexpected upset of the predicted outcome of the match soon had the entire audience speculating over the revelation that Satoshi apparently had a never before seen Kekkei Genkai that allowed him to create cement. Technically, the transformation from dirt to cement had been caused by accidental magic and not a true bloodline limit but there was no one present that was aware of that fact. Not even Satoshi really understood what happened; he just knew that other power inside of him had protected him once again.

The second match of the morning saw the Genin from Yuki burying the final Suna Genin up to the neck in ice crystals after thirty minutes of hand to hand combat coupled with exploding tags and thrown weapons. The final match between Satoshi and the Snow ninja was then set to start at two o'clock in the afternoon; giving the final two combatants the remainder of the morning to rest and recuperate from their earlier battles. A trip to the Konoha medic that had traveled to Suna with Shibi saw Satoshi's ribs partially healed and taped before he slept off the extreme exhaustion that had washed over him after the accidental outburst during his match.

Much to the disappointment of the audience, Satoshi forfeited the final match after the first six minutes due to lingering exhaustion, excruciating pain from his still tender ribs, and after he'd lost another quarter of his swarm to the Yuki Genin's ice jutsu (the first quarter had been lost during his morning match). Satoshi wasn't willing to lose any more of his bugs and he knew he was not in any condition to fight a drawn out battle. The other Genin, in a fit of anger over being denied a true win, ended up sucker punching Satoshi in the chest two minutes after the referee called the match; re-breaking three of Satoshi's former broken ribs and puncturing his left lung.

That move actually saw the older shinobi being disqualified and Satoshi named the overall winner of the tournament despite the fact that he'd forfeited the final match.

Immediately after the disqualification was announced, Shibi Shunshined down to the stadium floor to whisk Satoshi off to the medic for a second time before he gave into the temptation of putting the Snow Genin's head on a platter for the rather cheep shot. An hour later, Satoshi was once again standing in the middle of the stadium as he was awarded a small cash prize and a small, eighteen inch tall golden trophy. The trophy was a two handled goblet with a pair of sand worms wound around the cup set onto a three inch square base made of pink and gold marble with the dates of the Chuunin Exam etched into the small silver plaque on the front of the base.

Satoshi originally wasn't going to accept the trophy or the prize money (since he had technically forfeited the final match) but his father talked him into it; saying that to turn down the win would insult Suna and potentially create a rift between the two villages.

* * *

The large group of Konoha shinobi walked through the main gates of their village six days later and Satoshi quietly slipped away to the Aburame Compound to rest (as his ribs still ached a bit) while the remainder of those who'd attended the exams reported to the Hokage. Three days later saw Satoshi, Nanami, and one of the other Konoha Genin that had participated in the Chuunin Exams and made it into the Tournament standing before the Hokage along with Aoba and the Jounin sensei of the third Genin. Satoshi was a bit confused as to why he was there as he didn't believe that he'd done anything that warranted him being singled out by the Sandaime.

"Out of the fifteen Genin sent to participate in the Chuunin Exams; the three of you performed above and beyond our expectations," Sarutobi intoned as he stood in front of the three Genin. "All of you are to be commended for your fiery determination and physical abilities that saw you passing the first two tasks and going as far as you were able during the third and final task."

"It takes more than just bravery, skill, and power to lead a team though," the Sandaime continued after he paused to study each of them for a moment. "A leader also has intelligence, ingenuity, and initiative; the ability to think on his or her feet, to turn those thoughts into viable plans, and the determination to set those plans in motion. A good leader works with his or her teammates utilizing the collective skills of the team to accomplish the mission. A leader will put the health and safety of the team and the client above the need for glory or money."

"A true leader also acknowledges his or her own limitations and strives to move beyond them without placing the entire team at risk. He or she accepts that one person can't do everything alone or be everywhere at once and plans accordingly; never hesitating to ask for help. The three of you have shown that you have what it takes to be a leader. Therefore, in recognition of the leadership skills the three of you demonstrated during all three portions of the Chuunin Exams it is my pleasure to announce that all three of you have been promoted to the rank of Chuunin. Congratulations."

Caught completely off guard, Satoshi stared up at the Sandaime Hokage in complete confusion for a full minute as the elderly shinobi held a green flak jacket out to the eight year old. He probably would have stood there frozen for several minutes longer if not for the gentle nudge Aoba gave him to get him moving. Even so he was numb and off balance because he truly hadn't been expecting to be promoted since he hadn't really thought he'd performed that well during the Tournament.

That had been the most emotion he'd shown since the day of the Kyuubi's attack on the village even if it wasn't patently obvious. Once he reached out and accepted the padded green vest, Satoshi bowed low to the Hokage and thanked him in his soft voice that was just the slightest bit hoarse with emotion before he slipped the slightly too large vest on over top of his red jacket.

They were dismissed a few minutes later and Satoshi wandered the village aimlessly for several hours as he tried to wrap his mind around the idea that he'd actually passed the Chuunin Exams this time around. He ended up in Training Ground Sixteen where he'd spent the first two years of his shinobi career training with Kotetsu and Izumo under the watchful gaze of Kushina. Despite being completely wrapped up in old memories, Satoshi was aware enough of his surroundings to avoid the hand that had reached out to grab him and the fist that had been aimed at his face as he spun around to face his assailant and recognized the teal haired Rokushou Aoi.

"I've been waiting for over three years to find you on your own without your ever present body guards," Aoi spat as he glared down at the younger, shorter boy. "I can't believe that they promoted a weak little runt like you to Chuunin; you are utterly pathetic and helpless without your friends protecting you."

Satoshi said nothing as he watched his fellow Chuunin's body language intently while discreetly sending his Kikaichu out into the surrounding grass so they'd be in a position to attack the moment he had a clear opening. He was thankful that the teen (who was in all actuality probably at least twenty or twenty-one now) had cornered him on the empty training grounds since it meant that there were no innocent civilians that could potentially get hurt if they ended up fighting. At the same time he was frustrated because the fact that it was just the two of them there alone meant that there'd be no witnesses if the older Chuunin managed to seriously hurt him and no one to stop the man if he wanted to kill Satoshi (if he managed to defeat the eight year old).

The next ten minutes were spent in a brief but fierce taijutsu battle in which the two of them exchanged a number of blows, dodged handfuls of thrown weapons, and Aoi alone spewed forth a steady stream of insults. Satoshi did his best to avoid taking any hits, though his newly mended ribs were still giving him just enough problems that he wasn't quite able to dodge all of Aoi's attacks. After those ten minutes, the two of them broke apart as they were both rather winded and both of them sported more than a few bruises. The older Chuunin used the opportunity to taunt Satoshi once more, looking to anger the younger Chuunin enough to make a mistake that would leave him wide open.

"Still have nothing to say? Is it because you are too stupid in addition to being too weak?"

Satoshi merely pointed a single finger at Aoi's feet where the Kikaichu he sent out earlier were currently converging on the older shinobi. The moment the man looked down, Satoshi activated a low level genjutsu to make the man believe that his Kikaichu were sticking hundreds of miniature exploding tags to his clothes as they swarmed up his legs and over his entire body. In truth, all the Kikaichu were doing was draining his chakra at an advanced rate as the man had frozen in place out of fear of setting off the hundreds of tiny, illusionary tags.

Once the older Chuunin was completely trapped in the genjutsu, Satoshi took out two blank tags and drew a pair of low level exploding tag seals. The seals used on the tags were training seals that he'd personally designed during his lessons with Jiraiya over a year earlier and when activated, they would create a bit of heat, generate a massive amount of soot and smoke, and make a loud noise as they exploded. They had been designed to be used during training exercises to simulate the standard exploding tags without any the risk of getting seriously injured during a friendly spar.

As soon as he finished prepping the tags, Satoshi carefully affixed one to Aoi's chest and the other to his back before returning to the exact same place he'd been standing moments earlier while calling his Kikaichu back. The moment his bugs were clear, Satoshi released the genjutsu and softly addressed the other Chuunin for the first time since the teal haired main had accosted him, "Rokushou-san?"

"What," Aoi snapped as he glared at the eight year old now that he realized he'd been tricked by a low level genjutsu.

"Boom."

The resulting dual explosion would be heard for miles and the smoke seen all the way from the Hokage's Tower; though it had left Aoi relatively unharmed if slightly singed and covered in soot with his clothes lightly smoking from the heat generated. Satoshi then calmly gathered the senbon and kunai he'd used during the short fight and walked away without looking back as his fellow Chuunin toppled over backwards from chakra exhaustion and extreme shock. He would be long gone and any trace of his presence completely wiped away (thanks to his swarm) by the time the AnBu Guards that had been dispatched to investigate the explosion arrived to find a gibbering and cursing Aoi still sitting on the ground with his head in his hands.

One gray haired shinobi wearing a dog faced mask had immediately recognized the effects of Satoshi's custom made exploding tags though and wondered what Rokushou Aoi had done to piss off the young Aburame enough to provoke the eight year old into attacking. Kakashi became suspicious when Aoi wouldn't say what had happened as the Chuunin staggered away from the three AnBu that had turned up to investigate the explosion; the smoking man still muttering curses incoherently beneath his breath.

The fifteen year old Jounin made a mental note to stop by the Aburame Compound later to check up on his unofficial little brother to make certain he was alright before he vanished in a swirl of smoke to make his report.

It would be another six days before Kakashi managed to make time to visit Shibi, Satoshi, and Shino and he was more than a bit shocked at the changes the past year had wrought in the younger genius. A year over which Kakashi had not once stopped by to check up on his honorary little brother due to work and his own deep seated grief. Guilt ate away at the fifteen year old as he found nothing but a dim shadow of the lively child he recalled from his memories. He was also surprised to learn that Satoshi had been promoted to Chuunin recently. Kakashi hadn't known that he'd been entered in the exams for a second time or he'd have made it a point to be there to watch them (the older prodigy had been out of the village on two back to back missions when both Satoshi and Shibi left).

Kakashi ended up staying for several hours; Shibi had invited the teen to join them for supper in hopes that his presence might bring Satoshi out of his shell a bit. Unfortunately, the Jounin wouldn't get a chance to draw the younger boy out that night as Satoshi vanished into his room soon after the meal to read through a scroll on fuuinjutsu that he'd checked out from the shinobi library just a couple of days earlier. Kakashi stuck around any way to hear the details of Satoshi's Chuunin Exam as well as to ask the older man if he knew what had happened between Rokushou Aoi and Satoshi at the end of the previous month.

Shibi was shocked to hear that there had been an incident; Satoshi had never said a word about a run in with the older Chuunin. The Head of the Aburame Clan absently recalled that Aoi had been nursing a grudge against Satoshi since the day his son had graduated from the academy and wondered if the man had tried to get revenge. After the teen left later that night, Shibi confronted his son about the incident with Aoi after tucking Shino into bed.

"Satoshi, why didn't you tell me about the run in you had with Rokushou last week?"

"I had already dealt with the matter," Satoshi replied as he glanced up from the scroll he'd been using to practice one of the new seal arrays he'd memorized from the borrowed scroll. "I saw no need to mention it since I walked away from the confrontation unharmed and you have been busy catching up on your paperwork."

"You still should have informed me about the incident," Shibi lightly admonished with a soft sigh of exasperation as he dropped his chin so he could meet Satoshi's gaze over the top of his sunglasses. "No matter how busy I am, I will always have time for you and your brother. I know that I've said this before but even if you remember the words, I think it bears repeating. Family always comes first no matter what. The only time I might not be available is during a village wide emergency and even then I would move mountains to get to your side if you or your brother needed me."

"I know that, tousan."

"Good, then you also know that I fully expect you to inform me in the event that Rokushou attempts to accost you a second time; regardless of whether or not you deal with the matter."

"Wakatta," Satoshi responded with a resigned sigh.

Each night, for the next seven nights, Kakashi turned up at Shibi's home to spend time with Satoshi; the silver haired Jounin stubbornly pestered the eight year old until he gave in and played at least one game each night with the teen. The game they played would differ each night; though it was always Shougi, Go, or one of four card games (Cribbage, Blackjack, Bullshit, or War) with Shibi often watching or joining in depending on which one they played. By the third night, Satoshi stopped trying to get out of playing and merely set up the board or shuffled the cards after the evening meal though he rarely ever spoke during the course of the games.

On the eighth night, which also happened to be the one year anniversary of the Kyuubi's attack, Kakashi showed up at his usual time only to learn that Satoshi had vanished sometime around midnight the night before and hadn't been seen since. Shibi's Kikaichu hadn't been able to find hide nor hair of the eight year old and while he was concerned, he wasn't actually worried due to the simple fact that the Kikaichu from Satoshi's swarm that had left behind showed no signs of distress.

Satoshi's vanishing act had actually been methodically planned out three days earlier when he'd noticed the village's preparations for a festival at a time when there had previously been no festival and it didn't take a genius to figure out that the village intended to hold a fair to celebrate the defeat of the Kyuubi one year before. The young shinobi wanted no part in any festivity that celebrated the loss of so many people that had been close to him (even if he logically knew that they were celebrating the village's triumph over the demon fox and not the many deaths). So while the village planned their fair, Satoshi planned his escape.

The first thing he'd done was hunt out a quiet, out of the way place where he would not be easily found. He'd then meticulously drawn a barrier seal array to secure his chosen location and to prevent anyone from finding it or him. Once that was done, he'd put together a pack containing everything he thought he'd need to honor his fallen friends and family (including the long absent Obito). With his preparations complete, Satoshi only needed to wait until fifteen minutes before midnight on the night of the ninth when he quietly gathered his pack of supplies, removed all Kikaichu that did not belong to his swarm, and snuck out of the house.

He made only one detour on the way to his private sanctuary (to place flowers on the graves of his missing loved ones) before he slipped through his barrier as the clock struck midnight. The eight year old then set up one candle for each missing loved one (including his birth parents, his godfather, and his honorary uncles from his life before his adoption) and spoke each of their names out loud and told them how much he loved and missed them as he lit their candles. Satoshi then allowed himself to cry and grieve for the first time since the day the Kyuubi attacked, releasing all of the pent up emotions he'd spent the last year burying deep inside of him.

Once he let out all of the negative emotions, he spent the rest of the day simply talking with those that were missing, telling them everything that had happened over the last year and talking about his fears and insecurities. He also expressed his anger and sadness over how the world could keep on going without them because it didn't seem fair that the world never noticed their passing. Satoshi talked himself hoarse that day as he knelt on the ground surrounded by the slowly burning candles for exactly twenty-four hours; not even stopping to eat or drink throughout his vigil.

When the clock struck midnight once more, Satoshi told everyone good bye, blew out the candles, and silently cleaned up the melted wax before he slowly made his way home; his heart feeling just a little lighter after the purging of his emotions. His father and Kakashi met him at the door when he returned home and he simply hugged them both before he disappeared into his room to sleep.

To those who were not very familiar with the eight year old, they would have seen no difference between his behavior before the first anniversary of the Kyuubi's defeat and his behavior afterwards. Those that were close to Satoshi soon noticed that the tenseness that had been present in the boy for the past year was gone and that the stiffness with which he'd previously held himself was missing.

He still hid his emotions and maintained his stony silences but there was now a measure of peace and acceptance that hadn't been there before his twenty-four hour vigil and private homage to the fallen.

* * *

**Translations:** Japanese to English

Amegakure (Ame) – Hidden Rain Village  
Doryuu Heki – Earth Style Wall  
Juuken Ryuu - Gentle Fist Style  
Kekkei Genkai – bloodline limit  
Kirigakure (Kiri) – Hidden Mist Village  
Konohagakure (Konoha) – Hidden Leaf Village  
Kumogakure (Kumo) – Hidden Cloud Village  
Kusagakure (Kusa) – Hidden Grass Village  
Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu – Double Suicide Decapitation Technique  
Sunagakure (Suna) – Hidden Sand Village  
Takigakure (Taki) – Hidden Waterfall Village  
Wakatta – I understand/understood  
Yukigakure (Yuki) – Hidden Snow Village

**Notes:**

Yukigakure no Sato – yes, I am aware that the Hidden Snow Village (or the Village Hidden in the Snow) does not actually exist in canon. I needed another village to participate in the Chuunin Exams though and picked Yuki out of a hat (so to speak). If it helps, you can see Yuki as a village that is comparable to Takigakure and Kusagakure; in that they don't have a Kage and they aren't really all that big or powerful and they aren't all that important in the grand scheme of things.

Satoshi's use of jutsu vs. his swarm – for those of you who are sticklers for canon, you will have noticed that Satoshi is using far more jutsu than the rest of his clan. This is intentional and there is a logical reason why Satoshi has enough chakra to spare for ninjutsu despite the fact that he is hosting a swarm. The short answer is magic. The long answer is that only 1/3 of his swarm is actually drawing on his chakra reserves; meaning that his Kikaichu are not consuming as much chakra from Satoshi as the swarms of other Aburame consume from their hosts. IE, Satoshi has chakra to spare that can be used for ninjutsu without risking his life or his swarm.


	7. Trials, Tribulation, and Tragedy

**Disclaimer:** _All HP characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies and all Naruto characters are the property of Masashi Kishimoto. This is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites._

**Warnings:** _Mild to moderate violence, character death, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), some moderate Dumbledore bashing (he's more manipulative than evil but mostly just stubborn), and who knows what else. _

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

* * *

Chapter 6: Trials, Tribulation, and Tragedy

Over the course of the next year, Satoshi once again spent roughly three-quarters of his time out of the village carrying out missions with Team Twelve. What little time he did spend in the village was mostly spent training alone within the Aburame Compound. At least he trained alone right up until Kakashi began actively taking an interest in his life once more; the fifteen year old hauling the eight year old off to various training grounds in order to expand on Satoshi's elemental training whenever they were both in the village.

Throughout that first year after the Kyuubi's attack, Kakashi had further mastered the Sharingan that Obito had given to him and copied over three hundred jutsu during the numerous missions he'd taken outside of the village. Once he started training with the younger boy, Kakashi taught many of the earth and water based jutsu he had copied to Satoshi in order to increase the eight and a half year old's arsenal. The teen only held back those techniques that required more chakra than Satoshi currently had available.

Satoshi approached those training sessions with resignation rather than his former enthusiasm; his thirst for learning had been buried alongside of his emotions in the wake of the Kyuubi's attack. The only two reasons he put any effort into those training sessions was because he knew he needed to train in order to get stronger and because Kakashi refused to pull any punches when they trained together.

After hearing about how he'd created a concrete wall during the Tournament, Kakashi introduced Satoshi to Tenzou; one of Kakashi's AnBu Teammates who possessed the same affinities as Satoshi. Due to his Kekkei Genkai, Tenzou was better suited to teach the young Chuunin how to combine his two elemental affinities to reproduce the effect that most of the world now believed was Satoshi's bloodline limit. The first thing Tenzou taught Satoshi was how to change the nature of his chakra into each of his two affinities.

To help him, Kakashi taught him how to create the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and warned him to never make more than one clone at a time until Kakashi told him it was safe to do so (after explaining how the jutsu took half of the user's chakra to create a clone and the inherent ability of the shadow clones to transfer their memories when dispelled). With the single shadow clone, Satoshi was to then spend an hour at a time focusing on pulling water from a leaf with his chakra to master the change in chakra nature to water while his clone practiced turning a leaf to dust in order to do the same thing for his earth affinity.

Satoshi immediately ran into a huge problem; attempting to change the nature of his chakra automatically pulled on the wild energy within his body (which it hadn't done when he was just using jutsu based upon his affinities).

During the first attempt, he ended up creating a crater eight feet wide and three feet deep from the explosive backlash of the two energies clashing violently. Tenzou and Kakashi had shared a single concerned look before Kakashi sent a shadow clone to Shibi with an urgent message for him to join them as soon as he could while they fished Satoshi out of the crater and made certain he was alright. Shibi had taken one look at the still smoking crater and calmly asked the two teens what the hell they'd been trying to teach his son.

After listening to their explanation and confirming that Satoshi was unharmed if unconscious due to exhaustion, Shibi told them not to allow his son to attempt it again until Shibi could be there to monitor the lesson. Satoshi's second attempt three days later was nearly as disastrous, only this time he'd turned the moisture in the air into dirt and the four of them choked on the fine particles until Tenzou managed to clear the air with a torrent of water. When Shibi asked Satoshi what was going wrong later that night in the privacy of their own home, the eight year old said that 'it' was interfering because his affinities were linked directly to 'it' ('it', of course, referring to the wild energy inside of him).

That revelation led to a whole new slew of chakra control exercises that were geared towards finding the proper ratio of chakra to wild energy that would allow him to use both energies without them clashing and blowing up in his face. It took him three weeks to find that balance which would ultimately be based upon the ratio of altered Kikaichu to normal Kikaichu within his swarm (currently at an eleven to five ratio). Once he had the proper ratio, he next had to learn how to mold the two together in order to create a single energy that would then be used to perform whatever jutsu he was trying.

It took him another two weeks before he managed to learn how to wrap the smaller thread of chakra in a casing made from his other energy that allowed them to function together while still remaining separate (merging the two energies together ending up much like trying to mix oil and water but with considerably more destruction involved). The chakra would then act as the blueprints for the jutsu while the wild energy actually fueled the jutsu; almost tripling his stamina simply because his magical core was more than twice the size of his chakra reserves.

Changing the nature of the two energies at that point was a piece of cake since the month and a half of trial and error had given Satoshi a greater understanding of both his chakra and his other energy (which was still unnamed though Satoshi had secretly started calling it magic due to his older memories from before Konoha; memories that he'd revisited during his recent vigil). The first time he used the new combination of chakra and magic to form a shadow clone, Satoshi accidentally created three clones because he was a touch nervous; which shocked the two teens because he should not have had enough chakra to create that many clones and still remain standing.

He didn't, but Shibi and Satoshi hadn't actually told either teen about his other energy despite them helping the eight year old learn how to access it as if it was chakra.

After that it didn't take Satoshi long to turn a leaf to dust or pull water from a leaf. Next, he had to figure out how much earth chakra and how much water chakra (combined with how much magic) it took to create the concrete. Near the end of February, Satoshi finally managed to recreate the concrete wall that had saved his life and won the match against the twenty-three year old shinobi from Kiri (though the process used to create it was completely different).

Tenzou and Kakashi were impressed because it was solid, sturdy, and nigh impossible to destroy short of blowing it up with a couple hundred exploding tags or other explosive force. The next step was learning to apply the new 'bloodline limit' to other jutsu and fluctuating between wet cement and solid concrete objects like spears or the wall. The process of creating new jutsu using the new ability involved a lot of trial and error as they worked out the hand seal sequence that was required for each jutsu. It would also take a lot of patience since it took time to build a jutsu from scratch.

Out of curiosity, Tenzou talked Satoshi into learning and then attempting to perform a Mokuton Jutsu just to see if he could do it; he couldn't. On the other hand, Satoshi could neutralize any Mokuton Jutsu that Tenzou used; turning the chakra fueled wood into concrete (effectively stopping whatever Tenzou was growing), breaking the wood back down into water and dirt, or in the case of the living trees instantly vaporizing them into dust and mist with a touch. It was almost inconceivable that Satoshi could easily and effectively counter what was considered one of the strongest Kekkei Genkai in existence (if not the strongest) using the same base elements (though not without exhausting himself).

All he was really doing was disrupting the chakra in the various jutsu with his magic in order to break them down into their base elements or transforming them into a form other than wood to stop the growth; not that any of them actually knew that though.

That knowledge was immediately classified as a clan secret to protect Satoshi from those who would seek to use him against Konoha for that ability or experiment on him to recreate it (Orochimaru's name topping both of those lists). The two Jounin even went so far as to swear an oath to not mention it to the Sandaime until the young Chuunin could better protect himself in order to prevent attempts to turn Satoshi into a weapon. It wasn't that they thought the Hokage would intentionally harm the younger boy; it was that they didn't trust Shimura Danzou (one of the Hokage's advisers).

Danzou had already made several attempts to recruit Satoshi into his Root program through the years since Satoshi had first earned his hitai-ate but Shibi, Shoichi, and Kushina had blocked the crippled shinobi at every turn. And even though he no longer had his father and Kushina to help him outmaneuver Danzou, Shibi still managed to stonewall the older man at every turn. However, the last thing the young Clan Head needed was for Danzou to redouble his efforts to recruit his son in an effort to get his hands on Satoshi's 'Kekkei Genkai'.

Kakashi spent another month working with Satoshi to help him create a new type of clone based upon his bloodline limit that they were calling Konkurito no Jutsu or Concrete Release. They ended up creating two types; a soft clone (Konkuri Bunshin no Jutsu) and a solid clone (Konkurito Bunshin no Jutsu). The soft clone was much like the Mizu Bunshin only slightly more difficult to dispel as it could endlessly reform itself out of the wet concrete that it was made from (like some of the more advanced water clones) but didn't lose bits of itself through evaporation like a water clone would when injured.

The solid clone, on the other hand, wasn't that much different from the Iwa Bunshin no Jutsu which created clones from rocks. The only difference was that the Konkurito Bunshin could be created in any kind of environment whereas the Iwa Bunshin needed rocks to be present (or for the user to be able to transform his chakra into rock). It was also extremely difficult to destroy because even if you cut off a limb, it kept on fighting unless you killed its 'heart'; that meant that a headless concrete clone could still fight on until put down (something that was both creepy and fascinating to watch and entirely due to the magic animating the clone).

Satoshi mastered the new jutsu around the middle of May, bringing the number of different clones he could produce up to six; the standard clone (which was just an illusion), the insect clone, the water clone, the shadow clone, and his two concrete clones. Tenzou would later teach him how to make a mud clone and he'd create a variation of the mud clone that he called a dust clone that was made from dry dirt (not related to the dust release bloodline limit that the Sandaime Tsuchikage used) which would bring his single element clone arsenal up to eight. By the time he turned twenty-five, he'd have learned how to combine two or more elements to create multiple variations on those eight clones but that was beyond his current abilities.

One of the positive benefits of Satoshi now accessing and using the wild energy inside of him was that his chakra coils nearly doubled in size since his magic was no longer restricting the growth of his chakra coils due to him creating a way for them to work together. It was Nanami that discovered the sudden leap in his chakra reserves during one of the rare team training sessions that Aoba insisted on Team Twelve holding around the first of June. The increase of his chakra coils coincided with an equal increase of his magical core since he was now exercising said core whereas before he'd left his magic completely alone (bar the amount of magic that the Kikaichu continuously feasted upon) due to its wild and seemingly uncontrollable nature.

The negative impact of Satoshi actively accessing his magic on a regular basis wouldn't be discovered for another year; after the young Chuunin's tenth birthday.

Near the end of June, Shibi would take Satoshi into the forest of death in order to allow the almost nine year old to increase his swarm once again. He ended up adding three new species of Kikaichu to his colonies (two new wingless types and a type of Kikaichu with thicker shells that were well suited for defensive techniques); which brought the number of species he hosted up to seven. The total size of his swarm also jumped to eighteen thousand; more than doubling the current size of his swarm (which had been below nine thousand ever since Suna's Chuunin Exams as he'd not bothered visiting the forest or the clan greenhouses during the past year).

For Satoshi's ninth birthday, Kakashi had talked (more like bribed) Jiraiya into hunting down an insect related summoning contract for the young Chuunin. The Gama Sennin actually managed to find two contracts that he thought would potentially appeal to the young Aburame. The first one he managed to locate was the long lost summoning contract for scorpions; an arachnid that was closely associated with the earth element and while scorpions were not exactly insects, they are often misclassified as such by many people. The second contract was a little known contract for summoning dragonflies; an insect closely associated water and wind due to its life cycle.

Normally, a shinobi was only allowed to sign a single summoning contract; a fact that Satoshi was completely unaware of at the time Kakashi had handed him both contracts (the nine year old had never paid much attention to summoning contracts because his chakra reserves had previously been far too low to summon even the smallest of summons). Not knowing that it should have been impossible (Kakashi had expected the nine year old to sign the contract he preferred), Satoshi went ahead and signed both scrolls in blood and channeled a thread of magic encased chakra into his signatures effectively altering the nature of the summoning contracts as they pertained to him; which would allow him to hold both at the same time.

Kakashi wouldn't learn of the mistake until after he taught Satoshi the hand seals needed to perform the summoning a week later. Instinctively, Satoshi summoned a small scorpion first with his right hand before he immediately summoned a small damselfly with his left hand; further cementing his right to summon individuals from both contracts because he altered the summoning string just by changing hands. Kakashi had been completely caught off guard by the fact that Satoshi had not only signed both contracts but had successfully summoned one of each species after only a few days of practice.

Satoshi would secure the cooperation of both creatures by using a clan jutsu to capture their preferred prey (mosquitoes for the damselfly and crickets for the scorpion) and helped in no small part by the fact that the two species had no issues working with one another.

Shibi was proud of his son for doing something no other shinobi had been able to do (not counting a former student of Jiraiya's who through the ability of the Rinnegan had the ability to summon numerous creatures). It didn't hurt that in doing so he'd completely stumped Hatake Kakashi; something that very few people could claim they had done no matter how long they'd known the Hatake prodigy and that Satoshi had done several times through the years since Shibi had adopted him. Like his ability to neutralize the Mokuton and the presence of his alternate internal energy, Satoshi's second summoning contract would be classified as a clan secret after Shibi asked his son to choose one contract as his main summons with the second contract being a hidden trump card.

It had been a difficult decision but Satoshi eventually went with the scorpions as his main contract since they were powerful, quick, and deadly. The dragonflies, on the either hand, made the perfect secret weapon and the larger summonses would allow for a quick escape because of their ability to fly. They also made great messengers for the same reason. He still summoned both every time the opportunity arose but only summoned the dragonflies when he was certain that no one but Kakashi or his father would stumble upon him summoning them.

When he registered his new summoning contract with the Hokage's Tower, Satoshi only listed the scorpions as instructed by his father. Sarutobi had been ecstatic to learn that a new summoning contract had been brought into the village and promptly earmarked Satoshi for entrance into the ranks of the AnBu once he reached twelve years of age due to his eidetic memory, his new summoning contract, his growing knowledge and understanding of fuuinjutsu, and his Konkurito no Jutsu.

Before Satoshi knew it, an entire year had passed and the second anniversary of the Kyuubi's defeat was nearly upon him. Like he had during the days leading up to the first anniversary, Satoshi began gathering those supplies he would need to hold his twenty-four hour candlelit vigil on the eighth. This included making a trip to the Yamanaka's Flower Shop to pick up the lilies, roses, tulips, snapdragons, carnations, and chrysanthemums he would leave on the graves of his loved ones (the number and types of flowers selected due to each one representing the characteristics of one or more of the people whose deaths he was honoring).

On the morning of the ninth, Shibi informed Satoshi that if he planned to disappear on the tenth again, he needed to take his brother with him since Shibi would be required to work and there was no one else to watch Shino. Satoshi hesitantly agreed to watch his brother and gathered up a large selection of healthy snacks and drinks for the toddler since he would not be able or willing to fast as Satoshi intended to do (his little brother far too young to go an entire day without food and water). He also packed blankets, extra clothes, extra diapers, bottles, toys, and a playpen for his brother to nap and play in.

After an hour of internal debate, Satoshi went back to purchase additional flowers for Shino to place on the graves of their grandfather, mother, and uncle as well as another two for Minato and Kushina since they had known Shino even if Shino had no memory of them. Shibi watched his oldest son the entire time, a small triumphant smile on the older man's face over his successful ploy to get Satoshi to start interacting with his brother once more (since the nine year old had unintentionally ignored the younger boy in his grief over the past two years).

That night, Satoshi bundled his brother up warmly, tucked him into a sling, and left a half an hour earlier than he had originally planned in order to give himself extra time to settle his brother into the playpen before he started his vigil. His early start proved to be fortuitous for one little blonde two year old that had been tossed into a dumpster just outside of the orphanage by the drunken proprietress of said orphanage. Satoshi had been passing over the ally where the dumpster was located as it was the shortest path between the Aburame Compound and Konoha's graveyard when he heard the toddler crying fitfully as he tried unsuccessfully to climb out of the large trash bin.

The moment Satoshi got a good look at who had been tossed into the trash, he'd felt his first true spike of rage in just over two years as he instantly recognized the blonde hair, sapphire blue eyes, and whisker marks. He considered returning the boy to the orphanage but a glance at his watch let him know that he'd have a hard time getting anyone to answer the door because of the time. He'd also be late for his vigil if he did and he doubted anyone would miss the boy for a day or two given the rumors he'd done his best to ignore over the last two years. Decision made, Satoshi fished the toddler out of the trash, shushed him gently, and took the child with him.

In the graveyard, Satoshi gave little Uzumaki Naruto (Kushina and Minato's son) the extra flowers he'd bought for Shino to give to Minato and Kushina knowing that the couple would understand if he was short a pair of flowers this one time. Satoshi also helped Shino give a flower to their mother, grandfather, and uncle as he whispered to both boys the names of the lost and how special they all were. Lastly, Satoshi placed the flowers for his biological parents, Rin, Obito, and his three missing 'uncles' from his childhood in front of the stone flame that stood sentential in the center of the graveyard, though separate so that it was clear they were each for different people.

Shibi and Kakashi had both witnessed Naruto's rescue and the late night visit to the graveyard before they lost track of the three children (not that Satoshi acted like a child any longer) ten minutes later as they vanished into the forest and slipped through the barrier that protected his sanctuary.

Once safely tucked behind his barrier, Satoshi quickly set up the playpen and deposited his brother inside so he could get Naruto cleaned up and dressed in clean, warm clothes (taken from the supplies he brought with him) before placing the blonde in the playpen with Shino. Satoshi then warmed up two half cups of milk for the two boys to help them get back to sleep after their late night adventure (or misadventure in Naruto's case). The moment they were taken care of, Satoshi set up the rest of his supplies so that when the clock struck midnight, he could begin lighting the candles as he began his vigil.

Near dawn (about the time his tears dried), Satoshi took a small break from the ritual he'd began the previous year to prepare a light meal of sliced pears and watered down apple juice for the two boys. Once that was ready, he woke up his brother and changed his diaper before sitting him back down in the playpen with his food and sippy cup before giving Naruto the same treatment. The tiny blonde toddler (who was nearly half the size of Shino) was frightened of Satoshi at first (the child had been far too stressed and exhausted to care when he'd first been picked up) but the nine year old did his best to calm the skittish child.

The offer of food and juice went a long way towards putting the child at ease and Satoshi watched him closely for a minute before he took out some of the toys he'd brought for his brother and made certain that they were placed where both boys could reach them. When Satoshi settled back down inside of the semi-circle of candles, he made certain to sit so that he could watch the two boys out of the corner of his eye and ordered a portion of his swarm to watch over them. The nine year old then began addressing his long absent birth parents by introducing both toddlers to them.

The two boys in question were greatly intrigued by the sound of Satoshi's voice; Shino because he recognized his brother's voice even if he hadn't heard it often over the past two years and Naruto because Satoshi's voice held none of the malice that was usually directed at the young Jinchuuriki. As if the two toddlers realized the serious nature of Satoshi's one-sided conversation, they sat quietly watching and listening to the older boy as they absently nibbled at their food.

Two hours later, Satoshi took another break to tend to the boys before he took Shino out to hold his brother while he spoke to their mother for about an hour. The Chuunin then returned Shino to the playpen and lifted Naruto out and spent an hour talking to Kushina as he simply cuddled with the attention starved blonde. At the end of the hour, when Naruto didn't want to let him go, Satoshi simply lifted Shino back out and held both boys while he talked to Minato and then to Shoichi.

While he spoke, Satoshi noticed Naruto trying to squish a couple of the Kikaichu that had migrated to him due to the toddler's large chakra reserves that were augmented by the Kyuubi's chakra and Satoshi gently stopped his questing fingers each time and coaxed the destruction bugs to return to him. After doing that a couple of times, Naruto quickly learned not to try and squash the bugs and Satoshi praised him and gave him a smile that set the toddler beaming in return. Near noon, Satoshi returned both boys back in the playpen, cut up a couple of bananas and got out a couple of teething biscuits for them along with a full cup of milk for their lunch.

For the next two hours, Satoshi then spoke to the two boys, telling them stories about the various people that were no longer with them while they ate. Once they crashed for an afternoon nap, Satoshi returned to the circle of candles and sat silently for nearly an hour before he hesitantly spoke of everything that had happened over the past year that he hadn't covered earlier. He even spoke of the guilt he'd been feeling since the night before when he realized he'd been ignoring his brother and that he'd somewhat intentionally forgotten about the living legacy that Kushina and Minato had left behind when they died because he'd been so wrapped up in the pain of loosing them.

Just before the two toddlers woke up from their nap, Satoshi gave his solemn vow that he'd never forget or ignore either boy ever again. He felt the wild energy he'd secretly started calling his magic shift in answer to his oath and instinctively knew that his magic would never allow him to forget or break his promise. He made careful note of the phenomenon and made a mental note to be very careful with future promises because he didn't know what would happen if he broke a promise that was linked to his 'magic'.

The rest of the afternoon was spent making the two toddlers laugh since he finally remembered that those watching over them from the afterlife would want to be honored with laughter and not just tears. Satoshi even took off his sunglasses and jacket and allowed a small smile to cross his face for the first time in two years (though it was tinged with a small measure of grief). Both younger boys squealed with pleasure over the attention and grinned happily each time they caught sight of Satoshi's smile.

In that moment tradition was born; a day of fasting and remembrance where there would be no hiding behind any mask (either figurative or literal). It would become the one day a year where Satoshi would allow his emotions (both positive and negative) free reign, a day where he told stories about those who had been lost and about the things he'd seen and done over the year. It would also be a time for family, a day when there were no missions, no training, and no outside distractions pulling them in different directions. It would become a ritual that he would follow religiously no matter where he was, who he was with, or what he was doing; one that he'd introduce to both his father and Kakashi the following year.

At the stroke of midnight that night, Satoshi slipped back into his jacket, sunglasses, and emotionless mask as he diligently cleaned up their messes and packed away their supplies. The nine year old then tucked Naruto into the sling and settled him across his chest before settling Shino onto his hip so he could carry him. He headed home once the two toddlers were settled; his thoughts swirling endlessly as he considered how he could insure that Naruto would be taken care of properly when he was training or out of the village on missions.

It was the memory of Kushina threatening bodily harm to the Nibi's host after learning Yugito had injured Satoshi that gave the nine year old a tentative plan. By that time, he'd reached the Aburame Compound where he was met at the entrance by Kakashi, his father, and an expertly hidden observer. Upon seeing the small welcoming committee, Satoshi suspected that his good intentioned kidnapping of Naruto might cause problems.

"I found him crying in a trashcan wearing nothing but a dirty diaper and filthy rags," Satoshi declared in his now usual whisper as he clutched Naruto protectively with one arm. "He was hungry, cold, and scared and I refused to leave him there like that. No child deserves to be treated like that; not even I was thrown out with the garbage before you found me in the forest."

"I see you found your tongue," Shibi commented blandly as he relieved Satoshi of the heavier Shino and led the way to their house. "I'm glad to see you managed to survive an entire day with your brother and found him a friend; maybe now you won't avoid him during the rest of the year."

"I gave my word to never again forget or ignore either boy from now on," Satoshi quietly stated before his tone turned hard as he added, "And first thing tomorrow I am going to speak to the Hokage about little 'Ruto. I will see to it that he is allowed to stay with us from this point forward so that I can take care of him and then I'm going to teach the woman who runs the orphanage a lesson she won't soon forget; Akai Chishio no Habanero style."

The two Jounin (and the unseen watcher) actually tripped over their feet at the quiet venom that simple statement held; the first trace of open emotion that Satoshi had openly displayed in two years (not counting his vigil the day before or the first one held the previous year). It was also a rather abrupt reminder that Kushina had not only been Satoshi's tutor since he'd arrived in Konoha (teaching him both English and Japanese) but that she'd been his Jounin sensei for just over two years and an older sister in all but blood.

It was also a sharp reminder that she had taught him more than just how to fluently speak, read, and write two different languages or how to be a good shinobi; something that made all three older individuals shudder briefly.

"While I admit the idea is appealing; I'm not certain that's going to work," Kakashi murmured as he started walking again and caught up to Satoshi who was still cradling the sleeping Naruto protectively.

"Little bug, how do you expect to care for a child when you have missions that take you out of the village frequently? What will you do with him while you are training?" Shibi inquired softly after he regained his equilibrium. "You can't exactly take him with you when you leave the village and while I know you have been saving up your mission pay, I also know you can't afford to pay someone to watch over him on a daily basis for the next five or six years. You are also only nine years old and ill-equipped to take care of a child full-time; no matter how mature you may be."

"What am I supposed to do then, tousan?" Satoshi asked with just a hint of despair lacing his tone this time as he stopped and glanced over his shoulder at his father. "I can't just walk away and leave him to be treated like garbage again."

"Why don't you let me take him back to the orphanage tomorrow? I will speak to the proprietress about taking proper care of the little mite and make arrangements for you to be allowed to visit him on your days off and bring him here for the occasional play date with your brother. And while I'm confident that you could put the fear of kami into the woman; I think it will be far more effective if she was approached by another adult."

"But I… I… al…alright, tousan," Satoshi agreed reluctantly as he saw the logic in his father's suggestion.

"Why don't you take our little tick and your new little mite and go get some sleep, Satoshi-kun," Shibi suggested as they stepped into the house and noted that it was just a few minutes after one in the morning.

"Hai, tousan," Satoshi replied as he accepted his brother back from his father and disappeared into the back of the house.

"Hokage-sama?" Shibi asked softly once he was certain Satoshi and his Kikaichu were well out of hearing range.

"You have my blessing to encourage his association with little Naruto," Sarutobi agreed as he dropped the stealth jutsu he'd been hiding behind. "Inoichi-kun already mind delved the proprietress and learned that she'd intentionally dumped him in the garbage in the hopes he'd permanently disappear. I never would have known he was even in trouble if you hadn't come to me first thing this morning to let me know that Satoshi-kun had him safe and sound and would return with him shortly after midnight tonight. Do you know where it was they spent the day? I could not find them in my viewing sphere at all."

"Tch, I'll leave some of my Kikaichu to watch over him and I'm willing to bet that my son will as well. And no, I don't know where Satoshi disappeared to; though, like I mentioned this morning, we'd lost track of him right around the cemetery so I imagine that he made himself a small shrine or just a small hideout where he could spend the day in peace not far from there. He did the same thing last year and I suspect his vanishing act is going to be a yearly ritual from this point forward; one I am willing to support since whatever it was they spent the day doing has rekindled a spark of life in my oldest son."

"I will keep that in mind when scheduling missions around this time each year to make certain he is free to continue his new tradition," Sarutobi promised after a few minutes of contemplation. "Anything that helps one of my shinobi find a measure of peace can only be a good thing and I did worry about Satoshi-kun. Kushina used to call him a bubbly delight to be around because he was always so full of energy and forever smiling; seeing him close himself off after her death was hard."

The next morning, Shibi reminded Satoshi that Naruto's parentage was considered an S Class Secret and that he was not to speak of it in public. Satoshi immediately understood the implied order and unspoken permission; if he was going to tell Naruto about his parents he needed to do so behind a privacy barrier and he had to be sure that Naruto knew not to tell anyone. Shibi had then taken Naruto back to the orphanage and asked Satoshi to wait at least an hour before dispatching the Kikaichu he knew the nine year old would be sending to watch over the boy to give Shibi time to make the arrangements with the woman in charge of the orphanage.

From that day forward, Satoshi diligently visited Naruto at least once a day and brought the excitable two year old home to play with his little brother three and four times a week; except for the times when he was out of the village on a mission. Each night he was home he'd also spend at least an hour softly reading to his brother or quietly playing on the floor with Shino, his Kikaichu freely mingling with Shino's Kikaichu as their swarms wandered back and forth between the two of them.

Near the end of the month, Satoshi began teaching the two toddlers English in memory of Kushina; so that he could pass on her knowledge to her son as he was certain she would have done herself had she lived. Teaching Shino at the same time meant his brother and Naruto could share something special between the two of them that would hopefully bind them together as friends. It would also allow his baby brother to share in his own legacy since English was Satoshi's native language – though only a handful of people were aware of that fact.

The intense training Kakashi and Tenzou had started a year earlier would continue as nineteen-eighty-nine seamlessly melted into nineteen-ninety with both teens pushing the nine and a half year old to his limits. Shortly after the turn of the year, Satoshi was introduced to one Maito Gai; a young Jounin that had proclaimed himself Kakashi's eternal rival a few years earlier. Gai in turn introduced Satoshi to the concept of wearing weights to increase his speed and stamina after he had watched Satoshi struggle in keeping up with Kakashi speed-wise during an afternoon spar.

The young taijutsu master also taught Satoshi a modified version of his Gouken Ryuu that would allow the diminutive Chuunin to use his speed to double the force of his physical attacks; unfortunately, due to his slight weight and stature, taijutsu would always remain one of Satoshi's weakest skills. He more than made up for it with his other skills and talents though.

Not long after Shino's third birthday, Kakashi took Satoshi to AnBu Headquarters and had the nine year old formally tested because he was curious as to where Satoshi stood skill wise. The AnBu trainers put Satoshi through his paces for three days straight, pushing him to his limits and then beyond them in order to test his potential. When all was said and done, the nine and a half year old was ranked as a high Chuunin with a stat total of twenty-nine point five with a latent potential of four point five and his luck set solidly at five.

Individually, his skills were rated as; ninjutsu three, taijutsu two, kenjutsu three, genjutsu three point seven-five, force two point seven-five, speed three, stamina two point seven-five, intelligence at a solid five, and fuuinjutsu four. The only reason his ninjutsu was so high despite his limited number of mastered jutsu was due to his 'Kekkei Genkai'. When it came to his potential, his overall ratings for his taijutsu, speed, and force were expected to increase once he had a couple of decent growth spurts and put on some weight and his stamina would increase naturally with age.

There were several people that immediately began drooling over the young Aburame's results (in combination with his other known skills) and making plans to get their hands on the young prodigy; the Head of the AnBu Division, a number of AnBu captains, the Head of the Torture and Interrogation Department, the Head of the Cipher Division (due to his intelligence and skills in fuuinjutsu), and Shimura Danzou (even more so than he had previously) just to name a few.

The Hokage hadn't really needed to know the results of the formal test since he'd already earmarked the child's file to be watched and the wily old man eyed his rival with distrust when he saw the crippled man eying Satoshi with far more interest after the child's stats had been leaked by someone within the AnBu Division. Sarutobi suspected the leak had been one of Danzou's Root Operatives that had somehow infiltrated the AnBu but he had no proof as of yet. Shibi was understandably upset when Satoshi's potential was made semi-public knowledge but knew it would have happened sooner or later anyway given the nature of living within a shinobi village.

To those watching the child, Satoshi was apparently oblivious to all the scrutiny he was now receiving though that could not be further from the truth. Satoshi's grandfather, father, and Kushina (the latter most especially) had trained Satoshi to always be aware of his surroundings even when it looked as if he wasn't paying the least bit of attention. His Kikaichu were an extension of his senses and they continuously filtered everything they learned back to their host with minimal delay (unless he temporarily tuned them out) so that it was as if Satoshi himself had millions of eyes, ears, and noses watching his back at all times.

Satoshi's connection to his swarm surpassed even his father's (and when he had been alive, his grandfather's as well) as his magic had boosted the intelligence and lifespan of those Kikaichu associated with his magical core and initiated a type of familiar bond with the tiny bugs. On top of that, his magic allowed him to infinitely split his perception between large numbers of his bugs at the same time while his photographic memory recorded everything in an instant (though that didn't help him process all of those memories instantly since he still needed to view them individually – which he didn't always bother to do).

It was that connection to his swarm that had seen him throwing himself between Izumo and Ni'i Yugito just in time to protect his teammate, allowed Team Twelve to move through the Caverns in Suna in record time, and would continue to protect him in the future.

On the first day he'd taken the nine year old to be tested, Kakashi had warned him that his scores (good or bad) would generate a considerable amount of interest from various individuals before giving Satoshi a chance to back out of the testing. Satoshi had merely shrugged and walked into the building; the nine year old not in the least bit worried. His promotion to Chuunin and the revelation of his supposed bloodline limit had already thrown him into the spotlight; a few mere numbers would not make that much difference in the long run.

That didn't mean that Satoshi would discount the unspoken threat that Kakashi had warned him about. A shinobi was raised to be paranoid because a trusting ninja was a dead ninja when he trusted anyone but his teammates and fellow shinobi (and sometimes not even they could be trusted). When no one was watching, the small Chuunin set up eleven more sanctuaries throughout the village. Each one of them was equidistant from one another and from his house so that he could have a place he could flee to should the need ever arise; all of them placed so that no matter where he was in the village he was within a two minute run of at least two of them.

He would not be caught unawares through his own ignorance and if someone still managed to get the drop on him after that, then may kamisama and the shinigami have mercy on their souls; because his father would not. Satoshi was also fully aware that the number of Kikaichu constantly hanging about on him had jumped recently and the new additions were most certainly _not_ part of his personal swarm or from the wild Kikaichu populations since most of them carried the faint taste of his father's chakra; meaning that his father was watching over him as well.

After a couple of months, the interest in Satoshi from various high placed shinobi faded when the nine and a half year old did nothing further to stand out in any way; even if it didn't disappear completely. Satoshi noted the difference but focused on his training and on the missions he was given as best he could.

His position within Team Twelve turned shaky about the same time as the interest in Satoshi had first spiked; when Nanami initiated a rather fierce competition for a position of leadership of their team with Satoshi out of the blue. Aoba stepped back to let the power struggle play out on its own, knowing the moment he stepped in one or both Chuunin would turn resentful; fracturing the tentative teamwork they'd built over the previous two years. It didn't help that Toshiro had grown more than a little bitter about being passed over for promotion and his failure to make it through the preliminaries leading up to the third round; the Inuzuka Clan males long known for their alpha mentality and superiority complex.

The conflict within the team came to a head during a B Ranked mission (of all places) late in April when they'd been sent out on their own while Aoba was out of the village on an A ranked mission with a pair of Jounin.

They were tracking a group of bandits that had been harassing passing merchant convoys and Satoshi's swarm had quickly located and infiltrated their base after Kariudo had sniffed out their trail. Satoshi had promptly shifted through the information his Kikaichu related back to him and warned Toshiro and Nanami about the traps his Kikaichu had found scattered about the bandit camp.

The nine year old had then offered a tentative plan to deal with the higher than expected number of bandits (and the suspected missing nin leading them) that would pose the least amount risk for their team (one that involved requesting backup). Nanami shot his plan down before he'd even finished explaining it and refused to listen to another word from the younger Chuunin. She then put forth her own plan and Toshiro had immediately agreed to Nanami's plan (the other teen harbored a huge crush on the pretty and talented Hyuuga); leaving Satoshi outvoted three to one (Kariudo had automatically sided with his human partner).

In that moment, the fate of Team Twelve was sealed.

Eleven days later, Satoshi returned to the village covered from head to foot in fresh and dried blood and barely able to stand on his own two feet while his gravely injured and still unconscious teammates were being hauled by four of his Konkuri Bunshin. Toshiro had lost his right leg from just below the knee in the same explosion that had taken the life of Kariudo and Nanami had lost her left eye and her left shoulder had been seriously mangled when she'd overestimated the abilities of her Byakugan and grew careless. Kariudo's body, the bodies of the bandits, and the bodies of the rogue shinobi he had ultimately faced alone had been sealed into a special storage scroll while the recovered stolen goods he'd diligently collected had been sealed in a second scroll.

Satoshi by comparison had escaped with a dislocated right elbow, three cracked ribs, numerous lacerations peppering his left side and the left half of his back (several of them infected), several burns (including a few chakra burns), numerous bruises, a severe case of chakra and magical exhaustion, and missing nearly his entire his swarm. Kotetsu and Izumo had been on duty at the gate at the time and he'd barely taken one stumbling step through the open gates in their direction before he'd keeled over from exhaustion, blood loss, and pain; sending his former teammates into a bit of a panic.

Five days after Satoshi's dramatic and frightening return, the young Chuunin finally regained consciousness and was grudgingly released from the hospital since his injuries had been mostly healed. He stopped in to see both of his now permanently disabled teammates when he learned that Toshiro still unconscious and barely clinging to life while Nanami had woken up two days earlier but had yet to be released due to the severity of her injuries.

When he visited her, Satoshi asked the despondent Nanami if it had been worth it; referring to the need she'd developed to prove herself better than the younger ninja. The half blind Hyuuga simply hung her head and replied with a hoarse no but Satoshi had not stuck around long enough to hear her reply; instead making his way to the Hokage tower to give his mission report. He ended up waiting just outside of the Hokage's office for close to an hour (due to a council meeting) before he was ushered into the room by the Hokage's secretary.

"Ah, Satoshi-kun; it is a relief to see you up and moving about at last. How are you feeling?"

"I am… fine, Hokage-sama," Satoshi replied in his soft monotone as he automatically took note of the concealed AnBu present through the small handful of Kikaichu still with him. "I came to deliver the report from Team Twelve's previous mission."

"It could have waited until tomorrow but since you are here now I might as well hear it," Sarutobi sighed as he critically eyed the young shinobi, noting how pale he still looked even as he pulled out a blank scroll and readied his pen. "Have a seat and begin when you are ready."

"Mission number bee three-two-four dash zero-nine-seven-five assigned to Team Twelve on April nineteenth; objective was to locate and detain group of rogue bandits plaguing merchant trains entering Hi no Kuni at the northern most point of the border between Hi no Kuni and Kawa no Kuni and recover the stolen goods if at all possible. The leader was suspected to be a low level rogue shinobi from Iwagakure," Satoshi promptly began in that same emotionless tone as he stubbornly remained standing despite the Hokage's order to sit and in spite of the lingering pain and weakness he felt.

"After three days of hard travel, our targets were located just within the border of Fire Country within a strategically placed hideout guarded with advanced barriers and surrounded with deadly traps that were obviously created by someone trained in the shinobi arts. Through the use of Nanami's Byakugan and my Kikaichu we confirmed the presence of three missing nins from Ishigakure and two more from Iwagakure in addition to fourteen civilian thugs."

Satoshi paused for a brief moment as he moved his focus from the Hokage to a point just beyond the Hokage's shoulder, the only visible sign of his internal distress, before he continued on in a voice that sounded just the slightest bit strained though few people would have even noticed the slight change, "Infiltration was attempted after all activity within the camp ceased for the night. Using my knowledge of seals, I created an opening in the barriers surrounding the camp and we slipped inside. We made it as far as the main building before an alarm was triggered."

"During the ensuing battle, Toshiro and Kariudo were caught in an explosion that killed the ninken instantly and shattered Toshiro's lower right leg beyond repair. Nanami attempted to face all five of the missing nin present alone after ordering me to tend to Toshiro and deal with the thugs. Nanami was easily overwhelmed and her Byakugan neutralized when one of the shinobi present destroyed her left eye and injured her left shoulder with a stone based ninjutsu while her attention was focused on two of the other rogue nins."

"Due to both of my teammates being critically injured and the fact that I was still outnumbered by fourteen to one; I made the decision to use lethal force to subdue the enemy. Once the enemy had been disabled, I proceeded to provide emergency first aide to both teammates. Due to the severity of the damage, I was forced to amputate the mangled remains of Toshiro's right leg in order to prevent him from bleeding to death and to keep the injury from becoming infected due to the dirt and debris lodged within the remaining flesh."

"After tending to my injured teammates, I proceeded to seal the bodies of the dead into a storage scroll for ease of transportation and to prevent deterioration. The recovered stolen goods were also quickly stored before I disabled all traps in the area, dropped the existing barriers, and set up a new barrier to protect and preserve the location pending a full investigation."

Another brief pause and Satoshi's left hand twitched imperceptively as his gaze returned to the Hokage. This time it took him a bit longer to continue and when he did there was an obvious tension about his small body.

"Believing the mission to be complete to the best of my abilities, I used my concrete clones to transport my injured teammates back to Konoha. Twelve hours after starting on the way back, it became obvious that someone was tracking us and by dawn of the next day, the remaining eight bandits caught up to us. Leading them was another missing nin from Iwagakure by the name of Gari who possessed a Kekkei Genkai that allowed him to create explosions on demand. They chased us relentlessly over the course of the next three days as I tried to lose them again with the help of my summonses and my swarm."

"On the fourth day I was forced to face the eight of them in battle; when it was over I sealed their bodies into the scroll with the others. I then set up a temporary camp to treat my injuries and re-treat those of my teammates as best I could and to make certain that there was no one else following our trail. After resting for as long as I dared due to the fact that my teammates were in need of immediate medical attention; I set off towards Konoha once more. It took me roughly six days to reach the safety of the village."

"You've left out a considerable number of details, Satoshi-kun," Sarutobi pointed out as he frowned down at the notes he'd taken. "What exactly happened when you faced the second group in battle? What happened to that final missing nin? Did he escape?"

Satoshi bowed his head for a moment before he slowly tipped his head up just enough to meet the Hokage's eyes over the top of his sunglasses revealing tormented green eyes as he uttered four words in a hollow, haunted voice that sent shivers down the spines of those who heard him, "I destroyed his soul." A second later, Satoshi's emotionless mask was back in place; leaving the Sandaime Hokage feeling far older than his fifty-nine years.

The official order to disband Team Twelve would be issued the next morning due to two of the four members being permanently disabled.

The AnBu medical staff that had been given the unpleasant task of performing the autopsies on the bodies of the seven missing nins and the twenty bandits were more than a little disturbed when they began unsealing the bodies. The thirteen corpses that had been killed by more conventional means (fatal kunai wounds, obvious sword wounds, and a few completely drained of chakra) and the three whose hearts had been damaged by a chakra enhanced hit to the chest were nothing new and those bodies had been dealt with in short order.

The ten bodies that had been completely transformed into statues (the cells in their bodies converted into concrete) were disturbing enough but what truly frightened them was the condition of the final body. That single body also confused the medical experts that examined it because they found absolutely nothing wrong with the body other than the fact that the man was without a doubt well and truly dead and the only clue as to what killed him was the look of sheer terror on his face.

A Ranked shinobi criminals don't die of fright; they die in bloody battles taking down as many of their enemies as they can before they give up the ghost. Frighteningly powerful A Ranked shinobi criminals with destructive Kekkei Genkai don't just keel over because they were scared. In fact, A Ranked shinobi criminals don't get scared because they are too busy filling those around them with fear. And yet, Gari (an infamous missing nin from Iwagakure well known for his devastatingly explosive attacks) had apparently died of fright.

If that wasn't shocking enough, the fact that it was a rather runty, soft spoken _nine_ (soon to be ten) year old that had terrified the well known criminal to death left those who saw the body feeling more than a little uneasy.

* * *

**Translations:** Japanese to English

Akai Chishio no Habanero – Red Hot-Blooded Habanero  
Chiri Bunshin no Jutsu – Dirt/Dust Clone Technique  
Doro Bunshin no Jutsu – Mud Clone Technique  
Gouken Ryuu - Strong Fist Style  
Hai – yes  
Hi no Kuni – Fire Country  
Ishigakure (Ishi) – Hidden Stone Village  
Iwagakure (Iwa) – Hidden Rock Village  
Iwa Bunshin no Jutsu – Rock Clone Technique  
Kage Bunshin no Jutsu – Shadow Clone Technique  
Kami/kamisama – god/spirits  
Kawa no Kuni – River Country  
Kekkei Genkai – bloodline limit  
Konkuri Bunshin no Jutsu – Soft Concrete/Cement Clone Technique  
Konkurito Bunshin no Jutsu – Solid Concrete Clone Technique  
Konkurito no Jutsu – Concrete Release  
Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu – Water Clone Technique  
Mokuton no Jutsu – wood release  
Nani – what  
Otousan/tousan – father  
Sensei – teacher  
Shinigami – soul reaper/death god (grim reaper)

**Notes:**

Gari – okay, I'm not one hundred percent certain whether or not Gari's ability is a Kekkei Genkai or a secret technique that was taught to all members of the Explosion Corps. After much debate, I chose to label it as a Kekkei Genkai because I have not yet seen anyone else use the same ability and could not find any more information on-line. I'm also certain that a number of readers can guess how Gari died but for those of you who haven't figured it out, it will be fully revealed in the next chapter.

* * *

**AN:** _And we finally have a meeting between Naruto and Satoshi/Harry, Satoshi is starting to finally explore the possibilities that his magic represents, and trouble managed to find Satoshi once again. The next two chapters will deal with the fallout from Satoshi's FUBAR'd mission, cover another major canon event that can't just be nixed, and set up a planned time skip.  
_

_Now, before I sign off here, I have a favor I'd like to ask of all my readers. I have, since I first started writing this story two or three years ago, been bouncing between two specific pairings for Satoshi/Harry. I have written out well over 300,000 words for both pairings and fully intend to post one pairing as a deviation of this story once I reach the divergent point. The deviation will also have a slightly different plot-line (though there will also be some scenarios that play out similarly in both), so it won't just be a matter of replacing one name with the other in the story. _

_On top of that, I have two subplots that revolve around future Genin teams and I'm still dancing between which sub plot I want to work into the main story and which one will end up as part of the deviation or as a second deviation (it depends on which pairing ends up being more popular). One subplot has me sidelining Sakura while the other subplot has me un-fan-girl-izing (yes, that is a word; I made it a word) Sakura. I did my best not to bash Sakura in either subplot since there are plenty of Fics out there that already do that.  
_

___So, the favor I'm looking for is for you to tell me which pairing you want to be part of this story and which subplot will end up in the main story (which is this story). The two pairing choices are Satoshi/Temari or Satoshi/Fu (the Jinchuuriki of the Nanabi -_ _**not** Yamanaka Fuu: and yes, the different spelling is intentional so as to keep the two characters straight in my mind and in the story). Please don't tell me you want a different pairing because it ain't going to happen - like I mentioned earlier, I've already written 300,000 words plus for these two pairings and I'm not going to go back and try to rewrite any of that just to throw in a different girl. Nor do I write slash (mostly because my attempts are rather flat and forced).__  
_

_I've put up a poll on my author's page with these options:_

_Satoshi(Harry)/Temari - Sakura Sidelined__Satoshi(Harry)/Fu - Sakura Sidelined_  
_Pairing Doesn't Matter - Sakura Sidelined_  
_Satoshi(Harry)/Temari - Sakura __Un-fan-girl-ized_  
_Satoshi(Harry)/Fu - Sakura __Un-fan-girl-ized_  
_Pairing Doesn't Matter - ____Sakura ______Un-fan-girl-ized_  
_Satoshi(Harry)/Temari - Sakura's Fate is Unimportant  
__Satoshi(Harry)/Fu - ____Sakura's Fate is Unimportant_  
___Pairing Doesn't Matter - __________Sakura's Fate is Unimportant_  


_If you don't have an account and are voting via an anonymous review, please use one of the above options so that I can keep track of everyone's opinion. Any option that is not one of the above will be ignored; that is especially true of any reviews that request a different pairing or that ask me to bash Sakura because that person dislikes/hates her for whatever reason. Also, no other pairings are open to debate, so please don't include them. _

_Anyway, that's all, thank you in advance for all of you who choose to participate. The poll will stay up and open until I post chapter fifteen or the end of the month; whichever comes first. And just so you know, even if your choice does not end up as part of the main story, it will be posted as a deviation when the story reaches the point where the split occurs. =) Jenn_


	8. Intrusions from the Past

**Disclaimer:** _All HP characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies and all Naruto characters are the property of Masashi Kishimoto. This is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites._

**Warnings:** _Mild to moderate violence, character death, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), some moderate Dumbledore bashing (he's more manipulative than evil but mostly just stubborn), and who knows what else. _

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

* * *

Chapter 7: Intrusions from the Past

It would be two months before Satoshi allowed Inoichi to view his memories of the tragic mission; two months in which the soon to be ten year old suffered through endless nightmares, constantly tried to scrub non-existent blood from his body and hands with scalding hot water, and had little to no appetite as anything he ate usually came right back up during or after his nightmares. The only thing that stopped Satoshi from withdrawing completely during that time, or rather, the only two people keeping Satoshi from locking himself in his mind were Naruto and Shino (his promise not allowing him to pull away from them).

At the end of the first month, Shibi finally coaxed the details of what had happened out of his tormented son and spent several hours reassuring his son that he was not an evil monster because he'd taken the lives of others to protect himself and his teammates. It wasn't just the fact that he'd killed for the first time that disturbed Satoshi though; it was the fact that he had used the wild energy inside of him to not just kill Gari but to utterly and completely destroy his soul.

In his desperation during that second battle, Satoshi had screamed those terrible two words that had stolen his mother from him and his magic had responded in an instant and the moment the green light had touched Gari the man had fallen over dead without a single mark on him. Satoshi's magic had linked him to the other man for a brief moment and in the instant Gari died, Satoshi had felt his magic rip the man's soul from his body and literally shred it into millions of pieces.

On top of that horror, the dark magic associated with the Killing Curse had left its mark on Satoshi; that darkness killing off nearly all of his Kikaichu in a single instant due to the corruption inherent in dark magic. The oily taint it had left on both his soul and his magic had the nine year old purging his stomach each time he thought about it or felt the pollution that clung to that wild energy inside of him.

Shibi, upon learning that his son believed his soul had been tainted not by the killing (though that bothered him too) but by the method in which he'd killed, sent Satoshi to the monks at the Fire Temple. Satoshi would spend an entire month at the temple undergoing numerous purification rituals in order to cleanse his soul and ultimately his magic of the poison that had infected him. While there, Satoshi spent much of his time in prayer and meditation when he wasn't going through the cleansing rituals. When the stain had finally been cleansed from his soul and he no longer felt the oily taint clinging to his magical core, Satoshi thanked the monks for their help and returned to the village where he finished the cleansing process by allowing Inoichi to view his memories of that terrible mission.

Not long after he returned home from the shrine, he returned to the Forest of Death once more to rebuild his swarm with his father. There'd been a brief moment when he'd feared that the wild bugs would reject him because of how many Kikaichu he'd lost or gotten killed over the years but his worries were unfounded as the wild insects flocked to him droves; much as they always had.

When Satoshi asked his father why they weren't afraid of him, Shibi reminded his son that a Kikaichu's lifespan was short and bonding to a host nearly tripled their life expectancy and saved them from many predators. Shibi then assured Satoshi that he wasn't the first Aburame to lose large numbers of Kikaichu unexpectedly in battle or through a simple mistake. He also reminded Satoshi that any signs of intelligence that the destruction bugs displayed could be directly attributed their host; alone in the wild, they were simply mindless bugs drawn to the scent of chakra.

Swarm well on its way to recovering, Satoshi awkwardly fell back into the routine he'd been following prior to the disastrous mission minus the parts where he'd train and take missions with his teammates. Since he was not currently assigned to a team and not taking missions, Satoshi had more free time to spend with his little brother and Naruto who had quickly wormed his way into Satoshi's heart; and the two boys loved every minute Satoshi spent with them.

A week after Satoshi returned from the Fire Temple, while his son was struggling to regain a sense of normalcy, Shibi was meeting with the Hokage, Inoichi, Aoba, Kakashi (who was there at Shibi's request when he learned the meeting was regarding his son), and Nara Shikaku (Sarutobi's Chief Strategist).

"I would like your opinions on placing Satoshi-kun on a new team," Sarutobi stated bluntly as he dropped a pile of shinobi files on the table. "These are the files of the individuals currently not assigned to a team, please sort through them and give me your suggestions on which pair you think would be best able to integrate themselves into a team dynamic with the child."

"No," Shibi stated without even picking up a single folder. "Throwing him back into yet another new team now would only create problems and while he won't complain or refuse; he'll not accept them. His first team was torn apart nearly three years ago after Kushina died. His second team began breaking apart shortly after Satoshi's stat results were leaked and the end results of that mess saw his two teammates permanently crippled and my son suffering through a near crippling emotional breakdown."

"I see… and what do the rest of you recommend?"

"Physically, Satoshi-kun has recovered from his injuries but emotionally he's still trying to come to terms with his first kills. The month he spent with the monks went a long ways towards helping him find peace but he'll most likely continue having nightmares for another month or two, if not longer," Inoichi ventured when no one else jumped in with their recommendations. "Placing him on another team right now could potentially see him attempting to repress his emotions even more than he already does which would inevitably lead to complete mental breakdown or a violent outburst. He is a strong and resilient child but he is still a child and pushing him too far would only see him breaking."

"I have to agree with Inoichi and Shibi; putting him on a new team is the worst thing you could do. Satoshi-kun never exactly warmed up to his teammates after Team Twelve was formed," Aoba added with a sigh. "Don't get me wrong, he worked with them and they were a good, strong team but he was emotionally closed off from both Toshiro-kun and Nanami-chan and only tolerated me at best. Within the last six months something had spurred Nanami into trying to step forward as the leader of the team while Satoshi is a natural leader who is not afraid to use his intelligence though he is lacking self-confidence and experience."

"Nanami, either because she started resenting Satoshi for some reason or because she was being pressured by her clan, began disregarding Satoshi's ideas and suggestions. At the same time, Toshiro started growing bitter because he'd failed where a kunoichi and a mere child passed but because he'd had a longstanding crush on Nanami-chan, he'd take her side even against his better judgment since he hoped to impress her. I had hoped the three of them would work out their differences and the only reason I didn't step in to settle the dispute for them was because I didn't want to generate more resentment by appearing to pick favorites."

"Quite frankly, they were the wrong team to send alone on that mission because they were a tracking and scouting team; not an offensive capture and retrieve team. Team Four might have been versatile enough to handle that mission but Team Twelve was never equipped to handle the situation they found themselves in and their lack of cohesiveness only made matters worse."

Silence fell over the small gathering as they digested everything that had been said so far along with everything that had not been said; each one of them reviewing what they knew of the almost ten year old Chuunin. After a few minutes, Kakashi broke the silence to offer his opinion, "If you insist on placing Satoshi-kun on a team, put him back with Izumo and Kotetsu; otherwise there is no point in bothering."

"Shikaku?" Sarutobi inquired with a heavy sigh.

"These four gentlemen know the child best," Shikaku pointed out. "To ignore their honest advice would be sheer folly and only lead to another troublesome situation later down the road."

"So what would you suggest I do with the child if I don't place him on a team?"

"Allow him to float between teams for the moment, filling in for sick or injured shinobi," Shikaku answered without hesitation. "He plays the supporting roll well enough that he can walk into almost any team and fill a temporary position without generating any resentment on either party. Since he will be a temporary teammate, there will be no power struggles and Satoshi-kun won't feel any unnecessary pressure. Either that or throw him to the wolves early by sending him to AnBu, Torture and Interrogation, or the Cipher Division."

"Or you could just ask him what he wants," Kakashi drawled while Shibi glared at Shikaku for even suggesting sending Satoshi to join the AnBu or the T and I Department (the Cipher Division tame in comparison to the other two).

"Very well," Sarutobi replied as he picked up his pipe and brought it up to his mouth. "I will place him on the substitution roster for the time being. Aoba, since you are currently without a team to train I will place your name back down on the Jounin mission roster. Shibi, relax, it was just a suggestion; I have no intention of inducting your son into the AnBu forces until he is at least twelve and only if he is willing."

"Kindly remember that you are speaking of my oldest son and the current heir to the Aburame Clan," Shibi intoned in a warning tone as he switched his glare from Shikaku to the Sandaime.

"You made him your heir?" Sarutobi queried in surprise.

"He may not have been born of my blood but he is my son and he has been raised as an Aburame regardless of who his biological parents were. Shino-kun was born out of the love I shared with my wife; not because I thought Satoshi was unworthy to lead the clan and had my beloved Mayumi lived, we would have had two or three more children aside from my sons. My father, who you'll recall was the former clan head, fully supported my decision to name Satoshi as my heir the moment his first swarm emerged."

"Just remember that he is also one of my shinobi," the Hokage calmly stated once he got over the slight shock of an adopted child being named clan heir (something that had never happened in the past except in cases where the adopted child was the orphaned child of another clan member).

The meeting ended shortly after that with Shibi feeling disgruntled and out of sorts over everything that had been said. For a brief moment he wished he could go back in time and change his mind about training Satoshi as a shinobi before he snorted and sighed; he knew that even if he could go back in time, he'd not change one decision he'd made regarding his oldest son.

When the twenty-five (almost twenty-six) year old finally reached his home, he opened the door silently and paused as he heard a pair of shrill giggles and screams of laughter ring out. Two seconds later, his youngest son and a tiny blonde went tearing passed him with his eldest in hot pursuit. One look at Satoshi's face had the man choking on his laughter as someone had drawn several crooked whiskers on the soon to be ten year old's cheeks and a pair of squiggly looking antennae above his glasses in bright blue ink.

"Just wait until I get my hands on you two!" Satoshi called out in a raised voice which from any other person would have been their normal speaking voice; it was the loudest Satoshi had spoken in nearly three years (not counting his two vigils).

"New look, little bug?" Shibi asked when the trio passed by him a second time as he stepped all the into the house and closed the door.

"Tousan!" Satoshi almost whined which only made Shibi's grin grow wider beneath the rim of his jacket.

"Well, have fun with the two insects; try not to squish them when you catch them."

At that moment both toddlers wrapped their arms around Shibi's knees and he glanced down to see that they had drawn the same exact markings on each others faces as well; Shino had traced right over the whisker marks on Naruto's cheeks. Both younger boys were also covered in Kikaichu; the dark bodied bugs (both black and dark blue) stood out sharply in contrast against Naruto's yellow hair. Twin puffs of smoke suddenly filled the room and a pair of dragonflies the size of adult poodles swept down and snagged the three year olds (or nearly three years old in Naruto's case) and carried them off to where Satoshi was waiting with his arms crossed.

Curious as to what his oldest was going to do, Shibi leaned against the wall to watch. He didn't have long to wait as Satoshi collected both boys from the dragonflies, tucked one under each arm, and thanked the oversized flying insects before dismissing them. The two toddlers squealed and wriggled but Satoshi held them firmly as he turned and carried them off towards the bathroom and two wails of protest rang out when the eldest of the trio declared it to be bath time.

Following the trio, Shibi listened to the two younger boys begging for mercy before they pulled out the big guns and used the dreaded Fukigen no Jutsu as they called Satoshi 'niisan' in stereo. Satoshi actually stumbled and nearly dropped both boys in shock and the toddlers took advantage of his shock as they twisted around to hang from the taller boy's neck and hugged him while begging him not to wash their faces yet. Shibi would later snag a few pictures of the three boys, their faces still decorated, as they sat on the couch curled up together while Satoshi read a story to them.

The older Aburame suspected that his oldest son had been caught completely off guard by Kushina's son calling him brother for the first time. Remembering how close his son had been to the vivacious kunoichi, Shibi knew having that connection to her son meant the world to Satoshi. Naruto would end up staying the rest of the weekend with the family; Satoshi loath to send his newly claimed youngest brother home. Shibi was happy to note that over the past nine months the little blonde bundle of energy had filled out quite a bit thanks to the proper care he was now receiving and that his presence (combined with Shino's) had helped to thaw his oldest son's guilt riddled and grief frozen heart.

* * *

Monday morning found Satoshi standing before the Hokage once more as he was informed of his new status as a substitute shinobi; meaning he'd be assigned to fill in on teams that were a man down. The stoic child took the news fairly well as he was assigned his first temporary posting just two minutes later to the team of his old friend Toriichi Kumade (who had been promoted to Jounin two years earlier) and they were given an escort mission to Tea Country.

Over the course of the two week long mission, Satoshi shocked his old friend with the stark changes in his personality (the older teen had not really seen the younger boy except in passing during the past five years). Satoshi, for his part, had been surprised to find his old friend wearing a cloth face mask, similar to the one Kakashi always wore, to cover the bottom half of his face. The other two Chuunin on the team hadn't known Satoshi at all previously and found his emotionless demeanor slightly off putting because they couldn't tell what he was thinking behind his dark glasses and high collar.

They encountered more than one group of bandits and thugs over the course of the mission and efficiently dispatched them while protecting their clients. Satoshi only froze up once during the first battle as he had a flash back to the disastrous mission that had crippled his former teammates (until the pain of getting skewered by a stray kunai snapped his attention back to his surroundings). Kumade confronted him about the incident later but Satoshi simply shook his head and murmured out an assurance that it wouldn't happen again.

The sixteen year old frowned but didn't push the younger boy since they still had a mission to complete. Satoshi felt a little guilty about blowing his old friend off but not enough for him to actually say anything; the young Chuunin had no desire to share the shame and guilt he still felt over the way that mission had ended. If Kumade had known about the nightmares that Satoshi still suffered from on a near nightly basis, the Jounin might have pressed Satoshi further. As it was, Satoshi managed to keep his nightmares hidden from his temporary teammates by sleeping behind a low level barrier layered with a weak genjutsu.

They returned just seven days before Satoshi's tenth birthday and Satoshi was sent right back out with another team to transport a sensitive document to the Daimyou of Fire Country. It was a fairly quick and easy mission but there were politics involved simply due to the fact that it was the Daimyou to whom they were making the delivery. After the short dog and pony show, where he felt himself being scrutinized by the entire court, they escaped back to Konoha and slipped through the gates near eight in the evening on the thirtieth.

Satoshi was happy to be given the next two days off after the two back to back missions and swung by the orphanage on the way home to pick up Naruto only to be told that the little blonde wasn't available for the night. Slightly depressed over not being able to see his honorary little brother, Satoshi headed home where he was blindsided by a surprise birthday party that his father had arranged. The handful of friends that he'd made through the years, the various shinobi he'd trained with over the past two years, and little Naruto were all there.

The only people noticeably absent were the various Hyuuga that Satoshi had worked with or made friends with over the years. That wasn't really surprising though, considering the Hyuuga had been up in arms about Nanami's crippling injuries that had effectively ended her ninja career and quite a few members of the Hyuuga clan blamed the ten year old for her condition. A similar rift had occurred between the Inuzuka and the Aburame Clans as well due to Toshiro's lost leg and the death of the teen's ninken.

Despite the missing faces, Satoshi had a pleasant evening (though only a few of them could tell just how pleased he was behind his jacket and glasses).

Satoshi's next mission assignment was as part of the nightly guard patrols that roamed the streets for the next week due to the fact that there were currently no teams short handed. Satoshi didn't mind, since it meant that he could spend the days with his little brothers to make up for the weeks he'd been absent. Under normal circumstances, Satoshi would have been considered too young to patrol the streets at night. However, because there was a delegation of shinobi visiting from Kumo to sign a new peace treaty with Konoha, the Hokage had wanted extra shinobi out patrolling to prevent any mishaps from occurring over the duration of the delegation's stay.

The ink hadn't quite finished drying on the newly signed treaty when the Jounin leading the delegation attempted to kidnap Hyuuga Hinata; the daughter of Hyuuga Hiashi (current Head of the Hyuuga Clan) and the young heiress of the Hyuuga Clan. As luck would have it, Satoshi happened to be patrolling the street right outside of the huge Hyuuga Estate when the Kumo Jounin dropped down over the wall carrying a tied and gagged Hinata slung over his shoulder. The ten year old's swarm (which had been spread out in a half mile wide surveillance net around Satoshi as he patrolled) had given him fair warning before the Kumo Jounin made his appearance and therefore Satoshi was ready and waiting.

Six scorpions the size of cocker spaniels attacked the man with their pinchers before he knew what was happening while a solid black dragonfly about twice the size of the scorpions dove down out of the shadows and stole Hinata out of the man's arms; leaving Satoshi free to attack without the risk of the little girl being hurt. There was a short battle between the two before Satoshi used his Konkurito no Jutsu to mire the man in the middle of the street when he turned the ground beneath them both into wet cement (once his scorpions were clear).

A weak fire jutsu combined with a small burst of magic and chakra hardened the street the moment the man's weight had sunk him to his ankles and captured one of the man's hands when he'd dropped down to escape from the fire. Seeing that he was securely trapped, Satoshi sent his Kikaichu to drain the man of eighty percent of his chakra at the same time as an alarm sounded from within the Hyuuga compound.

Satoshi had just reclaimed the terrified and crying Hinata from his dragon fly, dismissed the flying insect, and untied the toddler as Hiashi came barreling out of the estate in a towering rage. The sight of the short ten year old cradling and attempting to comfort his distressed daughter while standing over the trapped Jounin and surrounded by the menacing scorpions drew the twenty-nine year old clan head up short. Hiashi's first thought had been to kill the man who'd dared touch his daughter; however, Satoshi gently but firmly pushing the frightened toddler into his arms distracted him long enough for a squad of AnBu Jounin to arrive to take the captured shinobi into custody for questioning.

The ten year old had then bowed politely to the Hyuuga Head and merely continued on his way to finish his patrol with the large scorpions scuttling along in his wake; all six of them loudly demanding (and later receiving) a reward for their part in the capture (as did the dragonfly).

The fall out from that incident had far reaching effects on both Kumo and Konoha. The Kumo Jounin (who'd been acting on his own in order to steal the Byakugan to replace the eye he'd lost to a Hyuuga years earlier) was publicly executed and Kumo ended up agreeing to a couple of compromises the Raikage had originally rejected. The only reason the treaty wasn't revoked outright over the incident was because the man had been acting entirely on his own.

The fact that it was Satoshi that rescued the young heiress also saw the rift that had formed between the Hyuuga and the Aburame over Nanami's injuries being repaired. It helped that little Hinata was quite taken with her new 'aniki' who had saved her from the 'big bad man' and somehow the little heiress ended up joining Shino and Naruto on their play dates along with her older cousin Hyuuga Neji.

On the sixth of August, Satoshi was sent out of the village once more with two teams in order to patrol the northern borders of Fire Country where it butted up against Yu no Kuni due to rumors of unrest filtering out of Yugakure no Sato. After twelve days spent parked in the same tree monitoring the same ten mile stretch of border with the help of his Kikaichu, Satoshi was more than happy to see their replacements turn up just before dawn on the twentieth. Satoshi calmly handed the Jounin a scroll filled with a copy of the detailed report he'd written of everything that had occurred in the immediate area (a whole lot of nothing).

He then gathered his Kikaichu and headed back to the base camp twenty miles out from the border to report to the Jounin in charge of patrols before starting home. It took the ten year old just over two days to make his way back to Konoha alongside the two teams that had shared the recent patrol with him. They reached the Hokage Tower just a few minutes after sunset and spent another hour and a half giving a verbal report of the state of the border (peaceful and quiet).

When he was dismissed, Satoshi made his way slowly back to the Aburame Compound as he silently made plans to spend time with his brother and the other children during the week he'd been given off to rest. He'd just about reached the gate that marked the entrance to the Compound when his Kikaichu became agitated; the portion of his swarm tied to his magic had picked up an unfamiliar presence that had the same wild energy that Satoshi had inside of him.

Crouching down, Satoshi created two shadow clones and sent one to investigate while he sent the second one to find the nearest AnBu Guard on patrol (which happened to be Inu). A single Kikaichu was dispatched at the same time to alert his father; the small bug making an effective messenger that was far less noticeable than a clone. Five minutes later, a flurry of red lights lit up the night and Satoshi tensed as he felt the fine hairs on the back of his neck stand up in protest as the intruder's magic left the heavy scent of ozone on the wind.

Shortly after the last of the light faded away the clone he'd sent to hunt down the intruder dispersed and Satoshi frowned at the collection of memories he received from the clone of a rather tough-looking man with very short wiry, gray hair who was wearing what looked like some kind of blood red dress or robes. The thin stick the man used to produce the bursts of red light tickled at the old memories Satoshi had of his life from before his birth parents had died and the ten year old felt a knot of trepidation form in his belly. About that time Kakashi appeared beside him in a swirl of smoke just seconds after his second clone dispersed; the seventeen year old wearing his AnBu uniform and mask.

"Status report," Kakashi ordered softly as he crouched down beside Satoshi.

"One man; middle aged, average height, short gray hair, wearing a red robe, and no apparent village affiliation," Satoshi promptly replied before he paused a moment as he checked the man's location with his Kikaichu. "He is currently thirty meters to the north and slowly working his way in our direction."

"And the light show?"

"His work… produced with the stick he carries when he immediately attacked the clone I sent to investigate his presence shortly after my swarm had detected his presence. Otousan arrived two minutes before you did and he is currently monitoring the intruder's progress from the branches of the tree beside the gate leading into the Aburame Compound."

"Here's what we're going to do," Kakashi stated after a few seconds of tense thinking. "I'm going to position myself to the north of the man's current position and on my signal we're going to herd him towards the wall where Shibi-san is waiting. I'll keep him occupied while you and your father drain his chakra to neutralize him."

"Hai, Inu-san," Satoshi replied, using Kakashi's AnBu designation since the teen was wearing his mask, as he created a single Mushi Bunshin and sent the insect clone to pass along the plan to his father before it would break itself down to allow the Kikaichu forming the clone to become part of the trap.

Kakashi nodded sharply once before he vanished in another swirl of smoke and Satoshi quickly ran through a series of hand seals, nicked his right thumb on his eye tooth, and slammed his right palm down on the ground in front of him. As the seals of the summoning jutsu flashed across the ground, two scorpions that were slightly larger than a fully grown St. Bernard appeared in a burst of smoke.

"What do you want, gaichuu?" the dark blue scorpion demanded crankily as he snapped his pinchers.

"I need your help to capture an intruder," Satoshi answered softly. "I'll provide you each with two pounds of chocolate covered ants and two pounds of roasted crickets after we're finished if you will help me."

"Deal," the yellow and brown scorpion agreed without hesitation, the giant arachnid drooling at the prospect of the offered delicacies.

"The man is wearing a bright red robes and he is fairly antsy and quick to attack; we're to drive him towards the wall where otousan will be waiting with his Kikaichu. Watch out for Inu-san, he'll be driving the man from the north and will probably have one or more of his ninken to help." A shrill whistle split the night at that moment and Satoshi pulled out half a dozen senbon as he rose up into a half crouch and began working his way forward while tossing over his shoulder, "That's our signal to move out."

Both scorpions darted passed Satoshi on their segmented legs; their pinchers snapping menacingly and their tails curled high over their bodies. From the north, the ten year old could hear the growls and barks of at least four ninken working with the gray haired Jounin. The pair of summoned arachnids reached the intruder first and once more colored lights lit up the night, these ones ranging in color from white to yellow to red. Quick on their feet, the scorpions dodged most of the blasts thrown at them while the ones they couldn't avoid were deflected by their heavily armored pinchers.

Satoshi was there seconds later, launching a steady stream of senbon at the man's feet and legs from the trees growing around the compound with the help of a couple of Mushi Bunshin in order to herd him in the direction they wanted him to go. Kakashi and his dogs had formed a small half circle in order to drive the man from the north and west, making certain the man couldn't escape into the village and like Satoshi were herding the man with thrown weapons and small explosions. Beneath the ground, thousands of burrowing Kikaichu were making their way towards where Shibi was standing ready with his bugs in preparation to swarm the man the moment he was where they wanted him.

Everything was going according to plan when the scowling man suddenly fired an acid green light towards Kakashi and time slowed down as fear coiled in Satoshi's belly as he recognized both the light and the words the man had spoken.

Pure rage filled the ten year old at the same time and he gave a wordless cry of fury that pierced the night as he Shunshined directly into the path of the killing green jutsu and threw up a wall of concrete to protect his brother in all but blood. The wall exploded violently the moment the green light struck it, bits of rock and cement shooting in every direction; leaving the three humans that were standing on ground level littered with cuts and bruises while the summoned dogs and arachnids vanished in bursts of smoke. The man stood at the ready, both of his eyes focused intently on Satoshi and his brow furrowed as if he was confused.

Running through a series of hand seals faster than the eye could follow, Satoshi hissed out a sharp, "Mizu no Muchi," and the moisture in the air quickly condensed into a long whip of water. The ten year old then dropped the ankle weights he wore with a sharp burst of chakra and the sound of them hitting the ground echoed through the street like a pair of firecrackers going off. Satoshi then leaned forward and slightly to the left as his green eyes blazed in fury behind his dark lenses.

"You have exactly five seconds in which to drop your weapon and surrender," Satoshi declared coldly in a voice that cut through the night like a knife as he let out a short burst of killing intent.

"_Merlin's sweaty ass crack; I don't have time for this shit,_" the man groused in English to the shock of both Satoshi and Kakashi; though neither shinobi allowed their emotions to show on their faces. "_I only have another twenty minutes before I'm supposed to check in with Fudge and I still haven't found the miserable brat._"

"_I repeat, you have exactly five seconds to drop your weapon and surrender or I am going to gut you where you stand for your attempted murder of my brother,_" Satoshi repeated in English since he wasn't certain if the man had understood Japanese or not.

"_Keep your pants on runt, I'm here on official business and I'll be gone as soon as I get what I came for._"

"_Time is running out and you are trying my patience._"

"_You're nothing but a snot nosed brat; what are you going to do, call your mummy to scold me?_"

"It's your funeral," Satoshi retorted in Japanese as he exploded into action.

Without the ankle weights holding him down, Satoshi fairly flew over the surface of the street; a black and red blur that was near impossible to follow. The whip in his hand cracked and snapped rhythmically as he lashed out at the man that had attempted to kill Kakashi in front of him. The man continuously spun back and forth as he tried to follow Satoshi's movements; the stick in his hand spouting bursts of different colored lights that never even came close to hitting the ten year old (including a few more of the green ones that Satoshi blocked with concrete slabs).

Within the first five minutes, the man was bleeding from several thin cuts and had red welts crisscrossing his hands, face, back, and chest from where the thin rope of chakra charged water had struck him; the water whip had easily cut through the fabric of his clothes. Satoshi began herding the man in the direction of his father once more at that point, knowing Kakashi and his father both would want to interrogate the man to find out how he'd snuck into Konoha and why he was lurking about the compound.

When the man was standing over his buried Kikaichu, Satoshi came to a stop right in front of the man and formed a single seal as he trapped the man in a genjutsu that made the man think Satoshi had just drawn his sword and sliced him open from groin to sternum. The man cried out hoarsely and clutched at his belly and Satoshi quickly wrapped his water whip around the man's torso and arms and tied it off as close to ten thousand Kikaichu converged on him from beneath the ground and the trees above. The ten year old felt no remorse as the man screamed out a second time, his mind making him experience Satoshi meticulously slicing him open every few seconds.

"That's enough, little bug," Shibi declared as he dropped down from the wall to land at Satoshi's side. "Cancel the genjutsu and go home to watch over your brother while Inu and I take him to Inoichi."

"He has no chakra, tousan; just an endless well of wild energy," Satoshi stated as he held the genjutsu a minute longer before complying with his father's order. "Kai." The ten year old then vanished in a swirl of bugs and reappeared at Kakashi's side, promptly hugged the teen tightly with an edge of desperation before he gathered up his weights and Shunshined home to watch over his brother.

Satoshi nearly vomited as he reappeared in the middle of his living room, the memory of the sickly green light heading straight for Kakashi and the putrid taint of the foul magic that fueled the jutsu making his stomach cramp and churn. He dropped to his knees, his weights clanking heavily on the wooden floors as he wrapped his arms around his stomach and pressed his face to the floor. The pattering of little footsteps dashing across the floor was the only warning the ten year old had before his little brother crashed into him and knocked him onto his side.

"Niisan! Missed you!"

"I missed you too, little tick," Satoshi replied softly as he gathered his brother in his arms and buried his nose in his brothers hair.

"I not little! I gonna be bigger'n you!" Shino protested indignantly.

"Maybe… but you'll always be my baby brother."

"Toshi-nii," Shino whined with a slight pout.

Satoshi laughed softly and allowed the corners of his mouth to turn up in the slightest of smiles; his brother's antics helping to dispel the lingering knot of dread that had formed in his stomach earlier. The two of them would spend the next three hours making and eating a small snack, taking a warm bath (so Satoshi could wash and treat his injuries from the fight), playing games, and reading stories. Near nine-thirty, Satoshi tucked his sleepy brother into bed, kissed his brow, and left several hundred Kikaichu to watch over the three year old while he returned to the living room to wait for his father to return.

He ended up dozing on the couch as the rather fast paced battle combined with his recent trip back from the border had tired him out. Shibi woke him up shortly after midnight and Satoshi yawned tiredly as he blinked up at his father and the four Jounin that were standing behind him; the ten year old easily recognizing Inoichi, Kakashi, and Tenzou but he couldn't quite place where he'd seen the scarred teen that was standing beside his pseudo brother.

"I know you're tired, little bug; but I need you to allow Inoichi to view your memory of the earlier battle along with the memory of the night your biological parents died so that he can confirm that the jutsu used in both cases were one and the same," Shibi instructed as he stepped back now that Satoshi was awake.

Satoshi nodded and sat up, his eyes immediately seeking out the long haired Jounin. Inoichi stepped forward and placed his hand on Satoshi's head with his other hand forming half a tiger seal and a moment later, Satoshi was standing inside his mindscape with the Jounin. The old ruined nursery that had appeared the first few times Inoichi appeared in his mind had long since vanished beneath a lush jungle filled with millions of brightly colored exotic flowers and insects; visual confirmation that Satoshi had completely embraced his new life and family.

"I'm ready when you are, Satoshi-kun," Inoichi announced as he glanced at the mental avatar that was an exact copy of the real Satoshi; right down to the hitai-ate tied round the ten year old's lower left thigh but minus the fresh cuts and bruises from his earlier battle (from where the shattered cement had struck the ten year old when his wall exploded).

Satoshi nodded and the world around them dissolved and reformed to show Satoshi making his way home after he had finished giving his report to the Hokage. They watched the entire incident unfold in silence as the Satoshi from the memory stopped the moment he learned of the intruder, sent off his clones, and gained the memories of the first dispelled clone. Inoichi would then pay special attention to the man's method of performing jutsu and his words as he watched the short but intense battle unfold.

When the memory finished playing, the two of them stood once more in the lush jungle before the world shifted a second time as Satoshi played out the old memory of the night his birth parents had been murdered as requested by his father. The moment the second memory ended, Inoichi left ten year old's mind.

"Arigatou, Satoshi-kun," Inoichi murmured as he dropped his hand from Satoshi's head. The man then turned to look at Shibi as he added, "There is no doubt; the man you caught used the same method of attack. There is also no mistaking the sickly green light of that killing jutsu."

"I was afraid of that," Shibi muttered as he scowled at the floor, his Kikaichu buzzing angrily.

"What's going on, tousan?"

Shibi didn't answer at first as his scowl deepened and Satoshi knew his father was seriously considering not answering the question. That knowledge had the Chuunin's eyebrows disappearing beneath the bandana tied around his forehead before they drew back down and furrowed together as he frowned. It was only on very rare occasions that his father would not answer his questions and that was usually because it involved some village secret or it was classified information that was job related. That his father might leave Satoshi in the dark about what had been learned from the prisoner meant that things were far more serious than he'd suspected and the knot of dread from earlier returned two-fold.

"Satoshi, musuko; sometimes it is hard to think of you as anything other than that timid little bug I found hiding in the holly almost eight years ago," Shibi finally began as he wearily sat down in the chair across from Satoshi. "You are a shinobi, have been a Chuunin for two years now, and you have proved time and time again that you can protect yourself and others. As much as I wish to protect you, I realize that leaving you in the dark this time would only make matters worse and leave you open to an attack."

"Tousan…?"

"That man was here for one reason and one reason alone; he was hunting you. He has, in fact, been hunting for you for almost eight years along with at least another two dozen individuals. Apparently, they had been unable to find any clues as to where you had disappeared to and believed you to be dead right up until the day you were injured during your first Chuunin Exams."

Satoshi sucked in a sharp breath and pressed a hand to his chest over his scars; his mind automatically pulling forward the memory of that terrible day. His father paused for a moment and studied him closely before he continued explaining.

"Apparently, they have some method of tracking or monitoring you but it also has limits. During the Tournament portion of your second attempt at the Chuunin Exams a year and a half later, they again took notice of you during your match with the Kiri Genin. Those two incidents confirmed that you were alive but they still had no idea where to begin looking for you until just over three months after the Exams; when you began learning how to change the nature of your chakra but it would still take time for them to pinpoint your location."

The ten year old went completely still, even his Kikaichu froze in place as he realized _exactly_ what his father was telling him; whoever was hunting him could track that other energy inside of him. Energy that he could not always control when his emotions spiked out of control.

"They found me when… the day I… when I killed Gari," Satoshi stated as he started breathing again almost two minutes later. "Because I used… I led them right to me."

"Hai; they'd been getting a little closer each time," Shibi agreed with a single nod. "The fact that you've been jumping all over the country these past couple of months only stalled them. Until the night you saved the Hyuuga heiress they could not pinpoint your location down; only you left before they could catch you and then you spent two long weeks on border patrol using only your swarm to avoid drawing attention to yourself."

"And so he… or is it they_?_ …he or they stayed in Konoha hoping that I would return at some point."

"Correct, little bug."

"How did he know where I lived? For that matter, how do they know who I am? If they have been looking for me for so long, they could not have known that you adopted me or they would have been here sooner…"

"The man we caught only knew you by your birth name and he had a rather accurate description of you including the odd jagged scar that you hide beneath your bandana. Apparently, this man and the others that are looking for you knew your biological parents by sight as least. As for how he knew to find you here; apparently your Kekkei Genkai leaves behind a noticeable residue…"

"And because I've lived here for eight years there was a large enough concentration of it that it would have been obvious that I either lived here, trained here, or visited this location frequently," Satoshi finished matter-of-factly when his father trailed off. "What exactly is it that they want with me?"

Shibi sighed wearily as he reached up with one hand at rubbed at his eyes from beneath his dark glasses; a sure sign that he was frustrated, worried, and exhausted. After a few minutes, he dropped his hand and continued in a much softer voice that was tight with tension and more than a hint of anger, "They wish to return you to your former guardians and train you to properly use your Kekkei Genkai according the man we captured. They are under the impression that you were kidnapped out of your home and are in need of rescuing."

"T…tousan?" Satoshi inquired in a voice that wavered slightly; the equivalent of what would amount to desperate pleading and abject fear in any normal child not trained in the shinobi arts.

"Easy, little bug; I will not send you away nor will I allow them to take you from me."

Satoshi slumped back against the couch with an audible sigh of relief as a small smile (that was more than a little tremulous) crossed his face for several seconds when he'd heard the steel and venom that had entered his father's voice during the second half of his declaration. Just as quickly, the flash of emotion was gone as Satoshi tilted his head to one side and contemplated what he had learned and wondered if there had been anything else his father had yet to tell him.

His eyes flicked to the three teens in the room and he wondered why they were there (aside from Kakashi, who most likely came to make certain Satoshi was alright) until he realized there was only one logical reason for all three Jounin to be there. Satoshi slowly sat back up at that point and focused his attention on the three teens for a full minute before he turned to his father expectantly and arched a single eyebrow.

"Satoshi-kun, you already know Kakashi and Tenzou, of course, and the final young man with us is Morino Ibiki. Ibiki, this is my son; Aburame Satoshi," Shibi introduced when he noted his son's pointed looks and Satoshi easily recognized Ibiki's name and face as he finally recalled that the teen had been promoted to Chuunin the same time as Kotetsu, Izumo, and Anko.

"As I'm certain you've already deduced, Ibiki, Kakashi, and Tenzou have been temporarily assigned as your guards for the foreseeable future; until such time as the threat of kidnapping has been neutralized. The Sandaime has already made arrangements for the four of you to be placed in a temporary squad together so as not to draw attention to the fact that you are being guarded. You will be allowed to continue taking missions and train as usual but you must be accompanied by at least one of your three guards at all times. All three of them, along with Inoichi and the Sandaime, have also been briefed in regards to the truth about the origin of your Kekkei Genkai."

"How long?" Satoshi asked as he filed away the information of who knew that his Kekkei Genkai was an alternate form of energy and not the Concrete Release.

"At least a few months but possibly longer; it really depends on whether or not they send additional people to try and take you. I would like you to focus on increasing your chakra reserves in your training; I would feel better knowing that you had the stamina to fight an extended battle should they somehow manage to catch you alone or take out your guard."

"Wakatta," Satoshi agreed without hesitation. "Will you have time to take me back to the Forest before the end of the week so that I can attempt to expand my swarm once more?"

"If I can not find the time to take you sometime in the next two days, your new teammates are more than qualified to escort you onto Training Ground Forty-Four."

Satoshi nodded in acceptance (he'd expected just such a response) even as his mind continued running through possibly scenarios of what could happen if he was forced to face yet another kidnapper. He tensed up the moment he began considering how much time he spent with Shino, Naruto, Hinata, and Neji and the mere possibility that one of them could be caught in the middle of an attack like the one that had happened earlier that evening.

"Who is going to watch over the children?" Satoshi asked in a voice that clearly stated the answer had better be names and not empty platitudes that the children were not at risk. Satoshi wasn't stupid, he knew that if those after him were desperate enough, they would attempt to use one of the four children that he frequently spent time with to get to him (or they could just be caught in the crossfire during a fight). He would not allow it.

"You're little Hyuuga friends are well protected since Hiashi-san recently upgraded the barriers surrounding the Hyuuga Estate and both children have been assigned a permanent guard from within the clan. We will be doing the same here around the Compound along with warning the rest of the clan and increasing the number of wild Kikaichu living about the Compound. Shino-kun rarely leaves the compound with anyone but the two of us, so that means he should be fairly well watched over as well."

"And Naruto?"

"He already has an AnBu escort simply because of who he is…" Inoichi began.

"Of those guarding him only a small handful of them even bother to watch him when they are on duty and of those that do, two of them have been reassigned as my guard," Satoshi interrupted in his usual monotone, his unseen eyes flashing dangerously behind his sunglasses. "That leaves two, maybe three, AnBu that are willing to actually protect Ruto-kun while the rest refuse to step in when civilians and shinobi alike threaten the child and on occasion actually sit and watch civilians attack him."

"I will speak to the Hokage and see what I can arrange," Shibi declared and Satoshi nodded just once. "Do you know the AnBu names of those that can be trusted to protect him?"

"Hai; Inu, Neko, Tori, Panda, and Uma," Satoshi rattled off without hesitation, purposefully naming both Kakashi's and Tenzou's AnBu code names as well (Inu and Panda respectfully). "Tori is the only one I am uncertain of."

"Alright, little bug; why don't you go get some sleep."

Satoshi nodded, rose to his feet, and headed towards the back of the house only to pause before he reached the hall as he glanced over his shoulder at the three teens that had basically been assigned as his babysitters for an indeterminate amount of time. Spinning on his heel so he could face them fully, he tilted his head to one side as he considered them for another minute before flicking his eyes to his father who appeared not to have noticed he was still in the room (though he didn't for one second doubt that his father was intimately aware of his exact location). He then frowned, just the slightest bit, as he dropped his eyes to the floor until he came to a decision.

"May I leave a small number of my Kikaichu with each of you? Since it appears we'll be spending an untold amount of time together, it would be the easiest way for me to always know where you are and so that you will know immediately if something is wrong; since the Kikaichu will become agitated if something were to happen to me."

"You've already tagged me with a dozen or so, gaki," Kakashi drawled as his visible eye crinkled in a smile.

"I told you before that I don't mind," Tenzou reminded the ten year old.

"I will allow it as well; will you allow us to tag you with a locator seal so that we might find you with or without the bugs?" Ibiki agreed and asked in return as he calmly studied Satoshi.

"So long as you allow me to either help design the seal or at least allow me to look it over before it is placed."

"I will have a copy of the seal with me when I return in the morning."

Satoshi nodded before he retreated and disappeared into his brother's room, fully intending to curl up beside his brother so he could watch over the three year old while he slept. As he drifted off to sleep, he absently noted his Kikaichu picking up Kakashi's chakra signature as the seventeen year old slipped into the room to watch over him while he slept. A soft sigh left his lips as he realized just how literal his father had been when he said he was to be accompanied by at least one of his guards at all times.

There had only been a small handful of times through the years when Satoshi really thought his life sucked since being adopted by Shibi; now was one of them.

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**Translations:** Japanese to English

Arigatou – Thank you  
Aniki – another way of saying big/older brother  
Fukigen no Jutsu – The U Ranked and highly dreaded Pout Technique used by children everywhere  
Gaichuu – pesky bug, a pest  
Inu – hound/dog  
Kai – release  
Konkurito no Jutsu – Concrete release technique  
Mizu no Muchi – Whip of Water  
Musuko – son (my son)  
Neko – Cat  
Oniisan/niisan – brother (older)  
Otousan/tousan – father  
Panda – Panda (Who'd a thought! Don't know why I didn't expect it though. I blame my blondeness… lol)  
Tori – Bird  
Uma – horse  
Wakatta – understood/I understand  
Yu no Kuni – Hot Springs Country  
Yugakure (Yu) no Sato – Hidden Hot Springs Village

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**AN:** _And so now we see the negative aspect of Satoshi learning to use his magic; he's drawn the attention of the wizarding world and they are intruding on his life. We also see the negative effects of the AK; and my reason for the killing curse to destroy the soul is to make the use of the spell far more damning than in canon. In this story, using the AK won't be a spell that any light or gray wizard will throw about willy-nilly. There is a reason, after all, why that spell inspires fear if it kills painlessly (like it is supposed to in canon). And no, Satoshi won't be throwing wandless AK's around right and left. In fact, he will never again use that spell.  
_

_I will also address a few reviews that expressed concern about how Harry/Satoshi pulled off the wandless AK in the first place. First of all, he's been taught to drawn upon his magic in the same way that he draws upon his chakra (which is mostly through hand seals though he also uses pure willpower at times too). Second of all, as shown here in this chapter, Satoshi still retains his earlier memories (he does have a photographic memory in this story) and he clearly heard Voldemort use the spell. Third, Satoshi was desperate when he was facing Gari and his desperation fueled a bit of accidental magic that added the extra umph he needed to successfully use the spell. _

_In the words of Crouch Jr. in the guise of Moody; Satoshi desired Gari's death badly enough that his magic complied when he uttered the words Avada Kedavra. _

_His use of the dark magic had negative repercussions as well; the taint that latched onto his magic and soul and the loss of nearly his entire swarm. That won't be something he ever forgets. Which is why he will never again use the AK to deal with any opponent no matter how tight of a corner he's been backed into. The only benefit he gained from using the AK was that he now recognizes the feel of tainted magic; which will be important in later chapters. _

_Now that I've said my piece regarding the AK, the next thing I wanted to address is the current poll results. First up, some people seem to think that Sakura was meant to be a love interest of Satoshi... well she's not. None of the Rookie Twelve will be a love interest; they are all just a little too young. The only reason she was included in the poll was because I was waffling between having her play a very minor roll (where she's only mentioned in passing once or twice) or if I will let her have a roll where her character is actually developed (though her roll still won't be any where near as large as it was in canon).  
_

_And those who voted for Itachi or Kakashi are out of luck as well as I already stated that this story will not have a slash pairing for Satoshi or any of the other main characters. I am also not going to do a harem. I don't write harems. Nor do I write threesomes. Sorry. Not happening here. _

_Anyway, for those who are curious here's the current tally for the poll votes:_

_Satoshi/Fu - 176  
Satoshi/Temari - 115  
Sakura Sidelined - 68  
Sakura Un-fan-girl-ized - 158  
Doesn't Matter - 51  
Unimportant - 116_

_That does not include the review votes which I am still filtering out and tallying up. And yes, I will include the review votes in the final tally once I've closed the poll - I just don't want to lose track of them and have to start counting all over for a second time (which is why I've been doing a lot of copy pasting in order to keep track of them). I'd like to take the time right now to thank everyone who has participated so far. ~ Jenn  
_


	9. Fate and Destiny versus Free Will

**Disclaimer:** _All HP characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies and all Naruto characters are the property of Masashi Kishimoto. This is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites._

**Warnings:** _Mild to moderate violence, character death, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), some moderate Dumbledore bashing (he's more manipulative than evil but mostly just stubborn), and who knows what else. _

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

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Chapter 8: Fate and Destiny versus Free Will

The first week Satoshi spent under guard went by fairly quickly as Satoshi passed the time training and spending time with the children. He was unsurprised when Hinata and Neji turned up with their new guard in tow; a fourteen year old branch member by the name of Ko in addition to the original branch member that had escorted the pair to the Aburame Compound prior to the appearance of the outsider.

All four children were pleased to once again spend time with Satoshi but Naruto was the happiest of all four because the time he spent with the others was the only time he was both safe and happy. The young Jinchuuriki only just barely safe and rarely ever happy when not with Satoshi since around ninety percent of the citizens of Konoha hated the not quite three year old with a passion simply because he was the Kyuubi's new Jinchuuriki (not that Naruto or any other child under the age of nine was aware of that fact).

The second and third week passed by nearly as quickly as Satoshi and his guards went on four back to back missions that saw them running from one side of Fire Country to the other and back again. These missions were of a slightly higher level than Satoshi was used to since his three teammates were all Jounin and keeping up with the older, more advanced teens pushed the ten year old to his limits. By the time their fourth and final mission had been completed, Satoshi was more than ready to go home and sleep for a month. He actually ended up needing to be carried part of the way home due to sheer exhaustion (from being constantly on the move).

Something his guards slash teammates had found more than a little amusing.

At the start of the forth week (after two solid days of rest where he did nothing more strenuous than tell stories to the toddlers), Satoshi was quickly beginning to get fed up with having a constant shadow. It wasn't that he disliked the three teens, even Ibiki was kind of cool to hang out with even if or maybe because of the fact that the man was nearly as unreadable as the ten year old (Ibiki lacked the advantage of sunglasses and something to hide his face behind). The eighteen year old was in fact the only one of Satoshi's three shadows that didn't constantly try to make him smile and laugh.

No, what annoyed the ten year old was the fact that he had absolutely no privacy and was not allowed even a single minute to himself (outside of when he needed to use the restroom).

Two days after they'd returned to the village, security got even tighter in the village and around Satoshi when the outsider somehow disappeared without a trace from a locked prison cell. That news had Satoshi feeling the noose of restriction tightening as he was now required to have two guards with him at all times and a fourth guard was added to the team in the form of Toriichi Kumade (Satoshi's old friend from the Academy).

Six days after the outsider's disappearance, another two strangers appeared within the village looking for Harry Potter. The first was a rather tall, fierce looking man with tawny hair streaked with gray that fanned out around his head like a lion's mane, a neatly trimmed goatee, and oval shaped glasses. The other man, by contrast, looked rather rough and unkempt, was somewhat short and stocky, had limp brown hair, and a sparse looking five o'clock shadow that made him look rather scruffy.

Both men wore the same blood red dresses that the other outsider had worn. Satoshi's Kikaichu didn't like either man as Scruffy practically stank of the taint that had clung to the green killing jutsu while Lion-man felt extremely shifty and powerful. At the time they had appeared, Satoshi had been training under the watchful eyes of Tenzou and Kumade when the two men slipped unseen through the defensive barrier surrounding Konoha and turned up on the edge of the training grounds after somehow tracking down the ten year old.

A short, intense battle followed and Tenzou managed to capture Scruffy in his Mokuton only for the man to turn the wood binding him into ash with a powerful fire jutsu. Satoshi was quick to help Tenzou douse the searing hot and wildly out of control flames that were growing larger the longer they burned and quickly heading for the surrounding forest while Kumade attempted to hold both men off. Scruffy took immediate advantage of Satoshi's momentary distraction as he unexpectedly transported himself across the training field with a loud crack, grabbed the ten year old around the waist with one arm, and began hauling him towards Lion-man as he yelled at the other man to hurry up.

Satoshi drove a kunai into the man's right shoulder joint and another into his right lung to loosen the man's grip on him and then used Kawarimi to swap places with a log. A dozen AnBu guards and Satoshi's other two guards turned up at that point (Satoshi had sent his Kikaichu for reinforcements the moment the two men had shown up) and Lion-man cursed loudly and popped across the training field with a loud crack as they were surrounded by the masked shinobi. The two men then grabbed hold of what looked like a bit of rope at that point and both men soon disappeared in a swirl of blue as a wave of ozone washed over Satoshi.

"Get him out of here, Toriichi," Kakashi snapped irritably as he noticed Satoshi standing at the edge of the torn up training grounds, shaking with anger and barely disguised fear due to the near successful kidnapping, as the AnBu dispersed to hunt down the now missing intruders.

Satoshi said nothing and made no protest when Kumade grabbed him by the shoulder and Shunshined him back to the Aburame Compound; his mind still focused on the attack. The ten year old was still somewhat out of it when his father returned home that evening; he didn't even pay attention to the short argument between Kakashi and the two that had been watching over Satoshi's training at the time of the attempt.

The fact that there were at least three other men out there that had the same wild energy as Satoshi and that all three of them had lacked chakra networks was somewhat disturbing. It also meant that they had no way of tracking those men if they returned to the village except through the clan's Kikaichu (that still flocked to feast on his magic) and the village's ninken through scent.

Later that night, Satoshi was attacked during the middle of supper by a flaming bird, of all things, and only Satoshi's quick reflexes saved him as the bird swooped down on him with outstretched claws. Six senbon blossomed on the bird before he could connect with Satoshi; one in each shoulder joint, three in the chest, and one in the head. The bird, instead of falling down onto the table dead, burst into flames with a startled squawk and a tiny chick buried in a pile of ashes ended up in the bowl of rice Satoshi had been eating from just moments earlier.

The bird cheeped plaintively from within its nest of still warm ashes as the three Jounin and one Chuunin sitting at the table stared at the bird in shock while Shino squealed happily and clapped his hands; the toddler obviously thought it was a trick that his oniisan had performed just for him.

Kakashi tried to kill the bird a second time which only caused it to burst into flames once more and made the bird indignantly scold the gray-haired Jounin for eight minutes straight. Shortly after that, Shibi calmly told Satoshi to find a box or something to keep the bird in until they figured out what they were going to do with it. Not wanting to actually touch the bird, Satoshi picked up the bowl of rice, ashes, and bird and tucked the entire thing into an old shoebox. The bird chirped happily, snuggled down into the warm ashes, and promptly fell asleep as he placed the box back on the kitchen table and moved as far away from it as he could.

Satoshi would spend the next seventeen days once more patrolling the border between Hi no Kuni and Yu no Kuni with his guards (part of that time spent traveling). He probably would have been left out there even longer if not for Sarutobi's earlier promise to Shibi to always give the young shinobi the ninth, tenth, and eleventh of October off every year so he could hold his vigil.

The moment he finished his report to the Hokage, Satoshi immediately began gathering supplies for his yearly vigil only for Shibi to remind Satoshi that he couldn't abandon his guard completely. The ten year old tensed up before asking his father if he would act as one of his guards while grudgingly offering to allow Kakashi to participate since he knew the seventeen year old best out of his four guards. Shibi agreed with little hesitation and his remaining three guards would stick around the house while they were out in case someone attempted to set up a trap while the house was empty.

At eleven at night on the ninth, Satoshi led his father and his honorary brother towards the cemetery while carrying both Shino and Naruto. This year, Satoshi had bought extra flowers to place on each of the graves and at the base of the flame sculpture; including enough for his father and Kakashi to place flowers. Once Kakashi had placed the last two flowers down beside the sculpture (in memory of Obito and Rin), Satoshi led both men towards his first sanctuary and when he reached the edge of the barrier he stopped and turned to face Kakashi.

"There are no masks allowed past this point; no hiding your face and no hiding from your emotions. If that is something you can't or won't do; then I'm going to ask you to stay out here."

Satoshi then keyed his father into the barrier while the poleaxed Kakashi stared at Satoshi; the gray-haired Jounin had hidden his face religiously since before Satoshi had been born. The ten year old then glanced at Kakashi who hesitated for another minute before he stepped forward and gave a shaky nod and Satoshi keyed him into the barrier before stepping through with the two toddlers. Once inside, Satoshi wasted no time in removing both his sunglasses and jacket before passing his father the playpen to set up. The two boys were then temporarily deposited inside the playpen while Satoshi began setting up the candles.

A quick check of the time let him know he still had ten minutes before it was time to start and he glanced up at Kakashi as the teen slowly pulled his mask down and Satoshi stared for a full minute before he grinned and began snickering over the tan line. Both Shibi and Kakashi were a bit shocked to hear the ten year old laughing out loud (soft as it was) but the older man soon joined his son when he too noticed Kakashi's two-toned face (much to the gray-haired teen's chagrin). Satoshi then hesitantly explained how he'd spent the day during the two previous years; including the fact that he had fasted both times and how he'd spent half the time last year telling stories and playing with the boys.

At one minute before midnight, Satoshi sat down inside of the semi-circle of candles with both toddlers on his lap and a box of long matches. He lit a match as the first chime rang out singling the arrival of midnight and he lit the first candle as he spoke the name Lily Potter. He helped Shino light the next candle and spoke their mother's name and called her kaasan so that Shino would understand who he was talking about. The ten year old then helped Naruto do the same for Kushina before passing the lit match to Shibi who lit a candle for Shoichi while Kakashi lit one for Obito; the teen leaving Naruto to light one for Minato.

Satoshi lit another for James Potter while Shino lit one for their Uncle Shikuro, his father lit one for his mother (Satoshi & Shino's grandmother, who neither child had ever met), Kakashi lit another for Rin, and Naruto lit the next candle for his father. Satoshi then lit another three candles for Padfoot, Moony, and Wormtail (even though he didn't know whether or not the three of them had actually died) while Kakashi lit another two for his parents and by that time Satoshi was crying as he cuddled the two three year olds. The last of the candles were then lit by Shibi in memory of the other clan members that had fallen both during the Third Great Shinobi War and during the Kyuubi's attack.

Shortly after that, the two toddlers were given sippy cups of warm milk before they were tucked into the playpen to sleep. Kakashi and Shibi then sat and listened to Satoshi spend the next three hours speaking non-stop as he told those no longer with them about his past year; it would be the most that the two men had heard the ten year old speak in three years. When Satoshi finally fell silent, Shibi unzipped his jacket and slipped his glasses off as he picked up the thread of the story, covering the last three years, while Satoshi snuggled up next to him and just listened.

By the time Shibi finished, the two toddlers were awake again and Satoshi cut them up a couple of apples, dished up some peanut butter, and poured them both some orange juice while Kakashi hesitantly followed the two Aburames' lead and spoke of his past three years.

The rest of the morning saw all three shinobi sharing different stories about those people whom they were honoring with the two boys; both three year olds hanging on their every word. Time and time again, both Jounin would be taken aback by Satoshi's openness; both of them reminded of a younger, happier Satoshi who had constantly been in motion while wearing a near permanent smile. Shibi felt more than a little relief knowing that his son hadn't completely lost touch with his emotions as it meant there was less of a danger of him closing himself off completely or having a second, more severe, mental breakdown at some point in the future (or worse lose complete control of his emotions and therefore lose control of his swarm).

During the first half of the afternoon, Satoshi romped about the small clearing with the two boys wearing them out so they'd take a nap. Once they were sleeping, Satoshi spent a while talking with his father about his insecurities while asking all of the questions that had been sitting in the back of his mind since they first learned that people from his past were hunting him. The ten year old couldn't understand why the men that kept showing up looking for him always attacked first without even attempting to talk to him and see if he was happy where he was or not. Shibi answered his questions and addressed his concerns as best he could but there were some answers he just didn't have.

Satoshi then spent the rest of the evening in prayer and meditation while the two Jounin fed Shino and Naruto a light supper and kept the kids occupied until midnight when they blew out the candles, cleaned up the small sanctuary, and bid their missing loved ones good night. The three shinobi then replaced their masks and hid their emotions as they passed through the barrier and back into the real world. The shared vigil had brought the five of them closer together and the three shinobi felt far more certain of themselves as they made their way back to the Aburame Compound.

They were met half way home by a pair of AnBu guards and Shibi was informed that the Hokage had requested his presence in his office immediately. Shibi gave a very pointed look towards Satoshi, who was holding the two sleeping toddlers, before declaring he would be there in five to ten minutes. He was about to leave when he was told that Satoshi's presence had been requested as well and that made all three shinobi (who were tired and hungry after the long day's vigil) frown before Shibi gave a sharp nod.

The older man then dropped his hand onto his son's shoulder and Shunshined them back to the house where they were immediately surrounded by the other three guards assigned to Satoshi's team. Shibi gave them the agreed upon password and they relaxed just as Kakashi entered the room through the nearest window and quickly gave his password as well. Satoshi then left Kakashi and his father to explain what was happening to the other three Jounin while he tucked Naruto and Shino into Shino's bed.

When Satoshi reentered the living room, his father and Kakashi grabbed hold of his shoulders and the three of them Shunshined to the roof of the Hokage Tower, leaving Ibiki and Tenzou to watch over the sleeping children while Kumade followed the three of them to the Hokage's Tower where he would wait on the roof in case backup was needed. Shibi then led the way down the side of the wall and into the Hokage's office through the window, startling the six strangers that were gathered in the office and making Sarutobi sigh.

Bracketed front and back by his father and older brother, Satoshi's eyes were immediately drawn to the six outsiders in the Hokage's office.

Sitting in front of the Sandaime's desk, there was a man that appeared to be even older than Sarutobi; his long white beard and hair reaching down passed his stomach. The man had a crooked nose upon which were perched a pair of half moon glasses behind which his blue eyes twinkled maddeningly. The man wore long, pale blue robes covered in bright red birds that looked exactly like the undying bird that had attacked Satoshi just prior to his most recent stint on border patrol.

Seated to the left of the bearded man, was a stern looking woman wearing an emerald green dress and robe combo and square glasses. Her black and gray streaked hair pulled back in a severe bun and a green pointed hat with a wide brim perched primly on her head. In the third chair (to the bearded man's right) was a short, pudgy man wearing a pinstriped suit with a bright red tie over which he wore a black ankle length cape. His hair was slicked back and more than a little rumpled and in his hands he twisted a hideous bright green hat.

The other three men were all standing behind the three seated individuals and one of them Satoshi immediately recognized; the individual in question just happened to be the Lion-man that had attacked Satoshi and his guards several weeks earlier. The next man was a tall dark skinned man who stood well over six feet tall, was completely bald with a gold hoop earring hanging from his right ear, and wearing the same red robes as the Lion-man. And the last man stirred old memories in Satoshi's mind as he took in his shabby clothing, gray streaked light brown hair, scarred face, sickly pallor, and kind blue eyes with flakes of dark amber in their depths.

It was the startling revelation that all six individuals possessed the same wild energy that was inside of Satoshi that put the ten year old on edge though and his Kikaichu buzzed beneath his skin in agitation in response to his emotions. It didn't help that one of the men that had tried to kidnap him was standing there with a triumphant smirk on his face as his eyes landed on Satoshi. In response, Satoshi reached back and palmed a kunai that he twirled around his index finger before holding it loosely enough that he could throw it the moment he sensed a threat.

The man scowled at the unspoken threat and promptly turned away from Satoshi as he crossed his arms and fingered the wooden handle of the stick that was secured to the inside of his right arm. The sharp flick to the back of his head from Kakashi reminded Satoshi that he wasn't alone and he reluctantly tucked the kunai into his jacket pocket where it would be close at hand and calmly followed his father a little ways further into the room.

"Ah, there you two are, I didn't expect it to take Fukurou and Uma quite so long to find you," Sarutobi stated as he glanced in their direction (Satoshi's inspection of the six strangers and silent threat to his would be kidnapper had taken less than ten seconds to conduct). "Kakashi, your presence is actually not needed; you are dismissed."

Kakashi turned to leave through the window but Satoshi's hand snaked out and grabbed hold of his shirt, holding him in place as the ten year old let his eyes linger on the sickly looking man that almost looked familiar. Sarutobi frowned as he noted Satoshi's interference but let it slide after a moment when he caught Shibi giving him a slight head shake. The Sandaime took in the number of strangers and realized that they would be outnumbered two to one should the outsiders decide to attack (not counting the hidden guards that always watched over him).

Sarutobi let Kakashi's presence slide since his being there seemed to set Satoshi at ease (not that the Hokage could blame the ten year old for being untrusting since one of the men present had attacked him without provocation), and instead introduced the strangers, "Gentlemen, please allow me to introduce my guests, Dumbledore Albus, McGonagall Minerva, Fudge Cornelius, Scrimgeour Rufus, Shacklebolt Kingsley, and Lupin Remus. Gentlemen, madam; may I present Aburame Shibi and his son Aburame Satoshi. Also with them is Hatake Kakashi."

"It is a pleasure to meet you," Dumbledore, the man with the beard, murmured in lightly accented Japanese as his eyes locked onto Satoshi. "You'll have to forgive my companions, they don't speak Japanese." The man then turned to address the other five outsiders in English. "_Mr. Sarutobi simply introduced the three individuals that just entered the room._"

"_Let's get on with this farce then,_" the hat wielding man that had been introduced as Fudge Cornelius ordered irately as he gesticulated wildly with his hat. "_I don't have time to sit here all night; just tell them to hand over the boy so we can leave._"

"_Now, now, Cornelius; we have to handle this delicately as your aurors' crude attempts at recovering the boy have created tension enough. If you had allowed me to send someone in first…_" Dumbledore began only to be cut off before he could finish.

"_The boy is a national treasure and it's ludicrous that you of all people would hesitate to immediately bring him back home where he belongs. It was your fault he was lost in the first place, Albus; so stop trying to lay the blame of this mess at the feet of the aurors that I sent to correct your blunder!_"

"_Maybe you should listen to Dumbledore-san since you are already on the verge of declaring war upon Konoha; what with an attempted murder, two attempted kidnappings, and breaking a known criminal out of prison,_" Kakashi drawled lazily in English to the shock of the six foreigners.

"_Now see here, boy,_" Fudge spluttered indignantly. "_You have no right to speak to me that way! You are the ones that have all but declared war on us by kidnapping the Boy-Who-Lived eight years ago._"

The wave of killing intent that flooded the office at that point had all six outsiders paling with the weak willed Fudge sweating bullets and nearly pissing his pants while the other five just shifted nervously with the Lion-man, the bearded man, and the black man the least affected. The killing intent stopped a moment later and several of the foreigners gasped in relief with Fudge bending over and fanning his face rapidly with his green hat.

"If we can kindly get down to business without throwing accusations back and forth now?" Sarutobi inquired after Kakashi had relayed the entire conversation to the Hokage through hand signs while the outsiders were paralyzed with fear (part of the reason Kakashi had released the killing intent in the first place). "You have sent men into my village, attacked my people without provocation, broke into our prison to help a known criminal escape, and attempted to kidnap one of our children. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't have the six of you executed for your crimes."

"Peace, Sarutobi-san, we mean you and your village no harm; we have been searching for a child that was taken from us eight years ago and in our rush to bring him home certain individuals allowed their emotions to cloud their common sense."

"Hnn," Sarutobi grunted in reply as he lifted his pipe to his mouth and chewed on the stem as he contemplated the group of foreigners from beneath his hat. "Let us start what exactly it is you hope to accomplish by coming here, Dumbledore-san; in the company of a would-be-criminal no less."

"We merely wish to retrieve the child that was stolen from his home eight years earlier. His relatives are most anxious to see him returned," Dumbledore began explaining when he was interrupted by a soft derisive snort which had him glancing between the three visible shinobi in the office and the Hokage in confusion as he tried to figure out who had made the sound before he continued. "As I was saying, his family has been worried sick about him these past eight years and we simply wish to see him returned to his home."

"Liar," Satoshi blandly stated in his emotionless whisper as he pulled his eyes away from the sickly man and glanced at the bearded man; his memories of the Dursleys' hate prompting him to utter that single word.

Dumbledore seemed taken aback by that simple statement but before he could respond, Sarutobi demanded, "How do you know that the child is here in Konoha?"

"We have tracked him to this village and I am ninety-eight percent certain that the young boy standing just beside your desk is the child for which we have been searching. It is a simple matter to check; Mr. Potter has messy black hair, bright green eyes, and a scar on his brow in the shape of a lightning bolt. I'm certain that if this young man were to remove his headband and glasses that I would find he has green eyes and the scar to go with the messy hair he inherited from his father."

The corners of Satoshi's mouth angled downwards just the slightest bit at the mention of his eyes and scar but he made no move to confirm the man's assumption. Few outside of his family had seen his eyes or his scar since he first donned both glasses and headband and he would not willingly change that now. The temptation to slip a henge on to hide both filled Satoshi as he glanced briefly in his father's direction before he let out an inaudible sigh as he realized it was a little late to try and hide now.

"And if he is? What is it you hope to accomplish?"

"As I said, I wish to return him to his rightful guardians; they have missed him these past eight years."

"_How much longer is this going to take, Albus?_"

"_Patience, Cornelius; I am doing everything I can,_" Dumbledore replied in English with a sigh.

"What are your plans should the child you seek have no wish to leave? If the child has found a family, a home, and established a life of his own within my village? Will you resort to force as you attempted to do prior to approaching me earlier in the evening? Will you tear him from his life here just to return him to his supposedly loving family? A family I might add that didn't even have the courtesy to join you in hopes of being reunited with their long lost family member."

"It would depend greatly on how Mr. Potter came to be here," Dumbledore slowly replied as he stroked his beard thoughtfully. "I could not, in good conscious, leave the child with his kidnapper; regardless of how he felt simply because he was brain washed into thinking this kidnapper was his family when his real family have been racked by grief these past eight years."

"I see… and if the child in question was not in fact kidnapped? If he was instead rescued from certain death and adopted into a loving family?"

"I would need proof but if that is true, then I would owe those who found him and the couple that adopted him my eternal gratitude. I am not completely heartless and would not tear a family apart needlessly. If we could first confirm the identity of the young boy in question…?"

"Very well, Satoshi-kun; if you would?"

Satoshi tensed as he frowned slightly from behind his jacket at the Hokage in betrayal; he had no desire to bare his face to these strangers. Strangers that intended to rip him away from his family, take him far away from his home, and hand him back over to a family that had hated him with a passion. Shibi's hand fell on his shoulder after a moment and gave him a reassuring squeeze and Satoshi felt a small measure of confidence return to him as he recalled that his father wasn't going to let him go without a fight. Sighing in resignation, Satoshi reached up and removed his head band and nearly cringed when several gasps rang out from the outsiders as the jagged scar on his forehead was revealed.

"_By Merlin, it is him!_" Fudge breathed as he jumped to his feet and crushed his hat in his hands. "_Shacklebolt, Scrimgeour; I want that boy taken into custody and transported back to England immediately!_"

"_Cornelius, don't be too hasty. It appears as if Mr. Potter has made a family for himself here and it would not do to antagonize him or his new family needlessly by using excessive force. We have not even established how the child ended up in Japan; let alone in the Hidden Countries._"

"_I don't care; I have wasted eight years trying to track the boy down and I'm not going to take any chances of him slipping through my fingers now that he's been found._"

"I wish to request permission to use any force necessary to neutralize the outsiders who are currently discussing plans to forcibly remove Satoshi-kun, Hokage-sama," Kakashi intoned as he began leaking killing intent once more as he glared at Fudge.

"Permission gra…" Sarutobi unhesitatingly began, only for him to be cut off.

"Please allow me a moment to talk some sense into my companions," Dumbledore quickly insisted as he noted the weapons that had somehow appeared in the hands of the two individuals that were hovering protectively beside the boy he now knew for certain was Harry Potter. "_Cornelius, will you please cease your brainless blundering and stop and think about what you are ordering? Think man, think! These men have twice beaten your aurors to a standstill and either forced them to flee or taken them into custody. Now is not the time to charge in recklessly._"

"_I don't care! My job is on the line because of your mistake and I will not allow a chance to set things right to slip away because you are far too old and senile to take proper action._"

"_The first one of you to attempt to lay a hand on my little brother will die by my hand,_" Kakashi growled as he pushed the hitai-ate he wore crookedly over his left eye up in preparation of unleashing his Sharingan though he kept his left eye closed for the moment. "_I suggest you think carefully about what you are attempting to do before one or more of you die a messy and painful death._"

"_Minister, please stop and think before you make matters worse,_" McGonagall huffed in exasperation as she entered the conversation for the first time. "_If you continue to insult them and threaten them, then you will only lose what may be our only chance at bringing Mr. Potter home and it will have been entirely your fault because you were too impatient._"

"_I think it might be best if you were to return to England, Cornelius, now that you have seen for yourself that Mr. Potter still lives,_" Dumbledore added as he gazed over his half moon glasses at the smaller, fatter man in disappointment. "_I realize that you are under a great deal of stress and that you have other obligations that need your attention. As Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and the Supreme Mugwump of the I.C.W., I have more than enough authority to carry out negotiations for both our Ministry and our Country. I would not be opposed to you leaving Auror Shacklebolt to act as your witness for the duration of the negotiations if you feel the need to have someone monitor the negotiations._"

"_Fine, but you'd best make certain the boy is brought to the Ministry when you are finished; I will see to it he is placed with an appropriate family so he can be properly educated on his responsibilities prior to his enrollment in Hogwarts next year. Someone is going to have to undo everything these barbarians taught the boy; least the public rebel because their icon has become tarnished._"

The short man rose to his feet, jammed his hat on his head, and imperiously signaled to Scrimgeour, the Lion-man that had nearly succeeded in kidnapping Satoshi alongside the Scruffy man, and the two of them vanished out the door. Two masked shinobi made themselves visible at that point and followed in the wake of the two foreigners to ensure that they left the village and didn't attempt to set up an ambush in order to kidnap Satoshi. The two Aburame present had also tagged the two men with several Kikaichu each in order to keep track of them since they didn't trust them.

"I apologize, I had originally tried to convince Cornelius to stay behind but he was most adamant about being seen returning Mr. Potter to his home. I had hoped that he would remain diplomatic but alas… I fear his emotions clouded his common sense."

Satoshi snorted softly in disbelief or maybe disgust as he tied his bandana back in place and allowed himself to relax just a bit now that the numbers inside of the office were a bit more in their favor (it helped that the man that had attempted to kidnap him a few weeks earlier was now gone). He then turned his attention back to the one man that seemed vaguely familiar, studying the man's shabby clothes and worn down appearance. He also couldn't help but feel that the man would never hurt him despite the fact that there was something about the man that agitated his Kikaichu. Determined to figure out who he was and why he felt so familiar, Satoshi stepped out from behind his father and tentatively made his way around the room until he was standing about six feet away from the man.

"_Harry…?_"

Satoshi shook his head no without taking his eyes off the man's face as he felt Kakashi step up behind him in order to guard him on the off chance that any of those present attempted to snatch Satoshi. Through the eyes of his Kikaichu, he knew that everyone in the office was watching him closely but he ignored them for the most part as he began searching through his oldest memories for one that matched the man standing before him.

"_His name is Aburame Satoshi. Aburame Shibi adopted him roughly eight years ago after finding him lost and alone out in the middle of the forest; severely malnourished and dying,_" Kakashi corrected softly, with an underlying hint of steel in his voice. "_Shibi-san took him in, gave him a home, adopted him into his family, and raised him as his son for the past eight years. He may not have been born into the Aburame Clan but Satoshi-kun is Shibi's son in every other way that counts._"

"_Dying? What do you mean dying?_" McGonagall demanded as she shot a glare at Dumbledore before refocusing her attention on the gray-haired teen.

"_He was more than half starved, wearing nothing but rags, bruised from head to toe, and suffering from several hours exposure to the cold. He was also extremely distrustful of everyone no matter how young or old; desperately clinging to the one person who had shown him a measure of kindness._"

"_What did I tell you, Albus! I told you the Dursleys were the worst sort of people! And you left him there despite my protests._"

"_We don't know that they are the ones responsible for the child's condition,_" Dumbledore countered in an attempt to sooth McGonagall's ruffled feathers. "_There is still the matter of who kidnapped Mr. Potter from his home and somehow managed to lose him along the way._"

"_The Dursleys hated me from the moment they found me on their porch. They would have celebrated my disappearance, if they even bothered to check on me and noticed I was missing, and the only thing that would have made them happier than me no longer being there, would have been seeing my dead body,_" Satoshi stated in his usual monotone as he tore his eyes away from the man in front of him and turned to the right to gaze at Dumbledore. "_And no one kidnapped me. They had locked me in my cupboard again because I dared defend myself and my food from my cousin; I was cold, thirsty, hungry, hurting, and frightened of the dark and wished to be free and then I was._"

"_You promised me my cub would be safe with his aunt,_" Lupin half snarled as he turned to glare at Dumbledore, his blue eyes glinting gold as the flecks of amber took on an inner glow in their depths.

"_I know you… you're Moony,_" Satoshi stated as he finally placed the shabby man in his mind; the glowing quality of his eyes and his use of the nickname 'cub' bringing forward the associated memories in Satoshi's mind.

"_How…?_" Lupin asked in shock as he whipped back around to stare at Satoshi.

"_Moony, where's Padfoot? What happened to Wormtail?_"

"_Wormtail died just a few days after your parents did and you don't have to worry about Black; he can't hurt you any more. He's locked up where he belongs._"

Satoshi frowned as he couldn't ever remember Padfoot hurting him. He was startled out of his memories a moment later when Lupin crossed the distance between them, dropped down to his knees, and tried to hug him. Sidestepping his arms, Satoshi put several feet between them once more. He felt kind of bad when he saw the man's face fall but he didn't trust him not to use the contact to whisk him away from his father.

"You know this man, Satoshi-kun?" Kakashi asked in Japanese as he maneuvered around him so that he was half standing in front of the ten year old in order to shield him from the other man.

"Hai; he was close to my birth parents."

"Now that we have confirmed the child's identity beyond a doubt," Dumbledore rumbled in his grandfatherly tone, his eyes twinkling like mad once more. "I would like to make arrangements for him to be returned to his home."

"I will not go. This is my home and I will not leave," Satoshi declared loud and clear; the first time he'd raised his voice above a whisper since entering the office; startling everyone in the room aside from Kakashi and Shibi who'd spent the last twenty-four hours listening to him talk normally. He then turned to meet Lupin's eyes once more as he added in English, "_I waited a year for Moony, Padfoot, or Wormtail to save me from the Dursleys. I don't need saving now. I am home; my family is here. I will stay here._"

"As I recall, Dumbledore-san, you stated earlier that you had no wish to tear Satoshi from his family; you are not thinking of going back on your word now, are you?"

"I do not wish to take him from his new family but is it fair to keep him from his last remaining blood relatives? He needs the protection they can provide him; he is just a child after all."

The shinobi in the office all exchanged a single glance before Kakashi, Sarutobi, and the unseen masked AnBu guards still watching over the Hokage all burst out laughing uproariously over the very idea that Satoshi needed someone else to protect him. Even Shibi had a smug grin on his face while Satoshi just crossed his arms and rolled his eyes behind his lenses over the antics of the adults and the slight against his abilities.

"Oh, Dumbledore-san, I must thank you; I haven't laughed so hard in years," Sarutobi gasped as he finally calmed down and wiped the moisture from the corner of his eye. "That you think Satoshi-kun needs protection; at his age and current level – other than from your countrymen's attempts to kidnap him. Or that mere civilians could provide an adequate level of protection when compared to the protection he is surrounded with while inside of this village."

"I'm not certain I understand what is so funny about seeing the child is protected from outside threats…"

"I am not a _child_. I am shinobi," Satoshi countered (his voice once again whisper soft), placing just the slightest hint of disdain in his voice as he said the word child. "I am capable of protecting myself long enough for back up to arrive if the situation calls for it."

"My dear boy, you are just a child to the eyes of the world."

"You bear the appearance of a feeble old man; do you need someone to hold your hand and protect you?" Shibi inquired blandly as he arched an eyebrow at the bearded man.

"I see the point you are trying to make but I have many years of experience and knowledge with which to protect myself," Dumbledore replied.

"My son has years of knowledge and experience in protecting himself as well and while there is always room for improvement and growth; he can adequately protect himself and has been doing so since the day he graduated from the academy."

"_Albus, if he is happy would it not be best to allow him to remain here with those he considers his family?_" McGonagall half asked and half demanded as she studied Kakashi protectively standing guard over the ten year old. "_They obviously care for the child enough to protect him from any perceived threats and he has been safe these past eight years._"

"_Better that the boy stay here than allow Minister Fudge to pass him off to the likes of a family like the Malfoys for 'reeducation',_" Kingsley pointed out in a deep rumbling voice.

"_Taking Har… Satoshi… from his family would only make him resent our world in the long run,_" Lupin pointed out, the man briefly tripping over Satoshi's name.

"_If you need to see proof that Satoshi-kun can protect himself, we can arrange a small demonstration,_" Kakashi suggested (after silently asking permission from Shibi and Sarutobi using hand signs) as he glanced between the now tense Satoshi and the bearded man seated in the chair.

"It is not just his protection that concerns me; young Harry will need to be trained," Dumbledore continued as he swung his eyes back to Sarutobi.

"Trained how? Satoshi has already graduated from our academy; his grades were exemplary, he is an intelligent and highly skilled young man, and he has since passed the first of two promotional tests. What could you possibly teach him that we haven't already taught him?" Sarutobi demanded with a frown.

"There is one thing you could not possibly teach him," Dumbledore countered. "If you could allow me to ascertain that our conversation is private and send away all but Harry and his father, I will gladly explain further."

In reply, Sarutobi signaled to the two masked AnBu still in the room and they promptly vanished in a puff of smoke (though they would not be going very far). Once they were gone, the Hokage turned to glance at Kakashi and noticed that once again Satoshi had latched onto the teen's shirt and knew he'd not be able to send the Jounin away without upsetting the boy further. Shibi in the mean time nodded to the Hokage to indicate that his Kikaichu could find no trace of any eavesdroppers or listening jutsu. Sarutobi then poured a measure of chakra into the hidden seal beneath his desk and the entire room glowed yellow for a moment; indicating that a privacy barrier had been raised.

"The room has been secured," Sarutobi declared a moment later.

"If Hatake-san would kindly step outside I shall begin," Dumbledore murmured in reply as he glanced at the teen in question.

"Oniisan can stay; I trust him with my life. He has already been briefed on the wild energy, what you call magic, inside of me," Satoshi stated firmly. "We are also aware that all four of you and the two that left earlier all have that same wild energy inside of you. Kakashi-nii and Tenzou-san have been training me to use my wild energy for over a year now."

"You already know about your magic? But how…? How did you learn about your magic and how can they train you if they do not have a magical core?"

"I have always known about my magic, though I wasn't certain that it was called magic until now," Satoshi answered as he held up his left hand and began pooling magic and chakra in his hand to condense the air and turn it into a ball of water in his hand that he promptly turned into a solid ball of cement. "And they taught me how to use the energy the same way they taught me to mold my chakra."

"_Sweet Circe, he performed wandless conjuration and transfiguration, Albus!_" McGonagall exclaimed excitedly as she leaned forward intently. "_May I please examine the stone ball you made, Mr. Potter?_"

Satoshi frowned at the use of his old name but he set the ball on the floor and rolled it towards the woman while he calmly insisted, "_My name is Aburame Satoshi, ma'am; I have not gone by my birth name since the day that my father adopted me into the Aburame Clan._"

"_My apologies, Mr. Aburame; it is hard to look at you and not see your father. You look very much like him when he was your age,_" McGonagall absently replied as she pulled out her stick and began tapping it against the stone ball she now held in her hand. "_Amazing, the transformation is solid and the composition of the cement is even throughout the entire ball. How long have you been able to transfigure water into cement like this?_"

"_Almost six months now; but I was eight when I first turned wet sand into concrete though that was more of an accident at the time._"

"_What else can you do?_" Lupin asked curiously as he stepped up beside McGonagall and studied the ball of cement as well.

"_Lots of things,_" Satoshi replied vaguely as he had no desire to give away all of his secrets. "_Why were you so shocked that I did that… what was it you called it? …wandless? What does that mean?_"

"_It is very rare for a child your age to perform controlled magic without a wand; most adults don't have enough magic in their cores or good enough control over their magic to perform wandless magic,_" McGonagall explained as she held up her stick; which Satoshi assumed was what she called her wand. "_Wands are a special form of focus that help witches and wizards draw their magic out of their core and the spells are what allows them to control that magic to perform various tasks; such as turning a ball of cement into a ball of metal._"

McGonagall tapped the cement ball that Satoshi had made with her wand and turned it into a ball of copper after taking it back from Lupin. She then levitated it across the room to Satoshi so he could see what she'd done. Kakashi plucked it from the air before it reached Satoshi, the teen making certain it wasn't a trap to kidnap or harm his little brother.

"_You could teach Satoshi-kun how to use one of those stick-things to do spells to change things?_" Kakashi asked as he rolled the ball in his hands and lifted it to his nose to sniff at it before passing it to Satoshi.

"_If he were to attend Hogwarts, then yes; we could teach him how to use a wand to manipulate his magic._"

"I'm not leaving," Satoshi stubbornly insisted as he retreated to his father's side after he tucked the copper ball into his pocket so that he could study it later.

"Satoshi-kun?"

"They want to take me away to some school to teach me how to use my wild energy with the sticks they use," Satoshi replied in response to his father's unspoken question.

"This is the training of which you spoke, Dumbledore-san?" Shibi inquired as he reached out to lightly rest his hand against Satoshi's back in order to reassure his son.

"Yes, we would teach him how to use a wand and control his magic. I am the current Headmaster of Hogwarts and Minerva is one of our professors; she teaches Transfiguration and watches over one-fourth of the students as the head of one of the four houses that the students are sorted into when they first arrive," Dumbledore explained. "They also learn Charms, Potions, Astronomy, Herbology, History of Magic, and Defense against the Dark Arts. After their second year they have the option of picking up two additional classes from five elective courses that include; Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, and Muggle Studies."

"And what happens if he is not trained?" Sarutobi asked as he leaned back in his seat and chewed on his pipe stem.

"Usually, the wizard who chooses not train his magic has his magic bound by the Ministry of Magic and his memories would be modified so that he forgets magic ever existed. In the rare instance, where the magic of the wizard in question is not bound; he usually dies when his magic reaches maturity. The reason for that is because his core will have grown fragile and unyielding from a lack of proper exercise and when he reaches magical maturity at the age of twenty-five, the sudden influx of magic he gains fractures his unyielding core. It is a most painful way to die."

"Satoshi-kun already has some control over his… magic," Shibi pointed out, the twenty-six year old feeling slightly odd at calling the wild energy found alongside his son's chakra coils magic. "Would he therefore not be exempt from the memory modifications? And would not that ability negate the risk of a fracture upon his seventeenth birthday?"

"He might be able to avoid having his memory modified simply because of who he is in our world but there is no guarantee that his core would not fracture since there is no way to measure how much exercise his magic is being given on a yearly basis. Wandless magic has different rules than wanded magic and while it is the more difficult of the two forms that doesn't necessarily mean that using wandless magic exercises his core more than using a wand ten months out of the year would."

"What exactly did the blithering idiot with the hat mean when he called Satoshi a national treasure?" Kakashi inquired curiously. "He also called him a public icon and…"

"The-Boy-Who-Lived," Dumbledore provided with a sigh. "Mr. Potter is…"

"Aburame Satoshi," Shibi interjected firmly.

"I beg your pardon?"

"My son's name is Aburame Satoshi. He was legally adopted into my clan eight years ago and I would appreciate it if you would acknowledge him as _my_ son; instead of trying to pretend that he is not a part of my family."

"My apologies, Aburame-san, I meant no disrespect. I have known him for ten years as Harry Potter and it is hard to think of him by anything other than his birth name," Dumbledore quickly soothed as he leaned his elbows on the arms of the chair he was sitting in and steepled his fingers. "The name Harry Potter is rather famous in our world for something that happened on the night his parents died."

"And exactly what was it that made Satoshi's birth name famous?"

"He temporarily defeated one of the darkest wizards of this past century and he is the only known survivor of the Killing Curse," Dumbledore replied gravely.

"You said temporarily; that implies he still lives. His body turned to dust when it was hit by his own curse; how does one survive without a body?" Satoshi asked in confusion as he frowned at Dumbledore while reviewing the memory in question.

"No one knows how he survived that night, only that he did and that he is somewhere out there biding his time as he seeks to regain enough of his strength before he makes his next move. Most people don't wish to believe that he can return and therefore choose instead to believe that he died that night," Dumbledore explained before he frowned and studied Satoshi closely. "How did you know something happened to his body that night?"

Satoshi shifted uncomfortably and glanced up at Shibi who silently gave him permission after a moment. The ten year old then sighed again as he dropped his gaze to the floor and answered, "I have an eidetic memory; I remember everything I have ever seen or heard. That is how I recognized Moony."

"Remarkable and not completely unexpected as your mother was blessed with a near photographic memory and your father was no slouch in the intelligence department," Dumbledore mused; his eyes were once again twinkling full force.

"The protection you mentioned Satoshi-kun needed; it wouldn't be from this disembodied spirit of a dark wizard would it?" Sarutobi asked after spending a few minutes digesting everything Dumbledore had revealed up till then.

"In part," Dumbledore confirmed as he turned grave once more. "There are also a number of his followers that slipped through the cracks at the end of the war. Now that the Ministry knows where young Ha… young Satoshi lives there is a chance that they may attempt to kidnap him or kill him in the hopes that he can tell them where their master is or that his death will bring their master back."

"Knowing that; why did you believe his former guardians, who from what I understand are mere civilians without even the protection of your supposed magic, could have protected him any better than we have over the past eight years?"

"There were special wards that I was able to raise around his aunt's house due to his mother's sacrifice; so long as he resided in the home of one that shared his mother's blood, he could not be harmed."

"Would such protection have survived these past eight years that he has been gone?" Shibi questioned.

"I am uncertain and the only way to find out would be to have him live there for at least a year."

"I won't go back," Satoshi stated bluntly as he glared at Dumbledore behind his sunglasses. "I have no desire to be called a freak, be told my parents were drunken criminals, or live inside of a hallway cupboard again. I may have been taught not to raise a hand against a civilian but I would sooner kill the Dursleys than allow them to hurt me ever again."

"Kill?" Dumbledore gasped in horror as the blood drained from his face. "You would kill your own family?"

"They may be my relatives but they are not my family and I would kill anyone that sought to harm me, my family, or my village," Satoshi replied in a hard voice barely above a whisper. "I am not a child, Dumbledore-san; I am a shinobi and it is my duty to protect Konoha and the people who live here. If that means killing my enemies, then so be it."

"Such coldness; what have they done to you, you poor child?" Dumbledore demanded in a pained voice as the twinkle in his eyes died completely and he sagged back in his chair.

"Do not mistake a simple desire to protect or see justice done for coldness, Dumbledore-san," Shibi countered as he placed a comforting hand on Satoshi's shoulder. "Are you telling me that murderers, rapists, and traitors are allowed to walk free in your world?"

"No, they are not; not if we can help it at least but we don't simply kill them. They are tried before a panel of judges and sent to prison for their crimes."

"We imprison simple thieves as well in addition to other petty criminals but we do not allow murderers a chance to walk free. If the man you managed to break free from our prison had actually managed to kill anyone the night he was captured, then you can bet that he would have been executed the moment we finished interrogating him," Sarutobi countered with a shrug. "You have your methods and we have ours."

"But to force a child to kill?"

"He has never been forced to kill and Satoshi-kun has always tried to capture his opponents before resorting to lethal force to subdue his opponents," Kakashi interjected on Satoshi's behalf.

"I think we have gotten far off topic," Sarutobi stated as he gave into the temptation and finally lit his pipe, taking a long draw on the now smoldering tobacco leaves. "We were discussing the potential harm Satoshi-kun could befall should he not be properly trained in the magical arts. I do not like the idea of subjecting one of my citizens to a potentially hostile environment for a form of protection that is not guaranteed to protect him so there will be no further discussion of placing him with his former guardians. Tell me, Dumbledore-san, how long is one expected to train before they are considered completed with their magical training?"

The next six hours would be spent discussing the different aspects of Satoshi's magical education, negotiating the terms under which Satoshi would be allowed to attend Hogwarts, setting up a formal mission contract to allow for a minimum of three guards to go with Satoshi to ensure that he is well protected from outside threats, and making arrangements for a tutor to spend the next year with Satoshi to prepare him for the day he was due to start Hogwarts in about eleven months. Satoshi remained quiet during the proceedings, the ten year old allowing Kakashi and his father to look out for his interests while his Kikaichu monitored the conversation.

In a valiant effort to remain awake, since he'd now been up for well over forty-eight hours at that point, Satoshi alternately studied the copper ball that McGonagall had made from his cement ball and discreetly watched the man he knew as Moony.

* * *

**Translations:** Japanese to English

Fukurou – Owl  
Hai – Yes  
Oniisan/niisan – brother  
Otousan/tousan – Father  
Uma – Horse

* * *

**AN:** _And Harry Potter has been identified but the magicals found far more than they bargained for. Poor Fawkes ended up with the short end of the stick. And while a second killing so soon after the first one might have normally killed a phoenix, I couldn't bring myself to off Fawkes. I also can't see Kakashi **not** trying to kill Fawkes after seeing him burst into flames and be reborn. Fawkes's fate and current whereabouts will be dealt with in the next chapter.  
_

_Now onto the poll results... _

_Satoshi/Fu - 237  
Satoshi/Temari - 155  
Sakura Sidelined - 91  
Sakura Un-fan-girl-ized - 216  
Pairing Doesn't Matter - 75  
Sakura's Fate is Unimportant - 160  
_

_And there are roughly 64 unsorted/yet to be tallied review votes and the poll will remain open for another ten days._

_Now, for those who are upset about the current leading pairing, please do keep in mind that I will be posting BOTH versions, the vote is only to determine which pair will be placed here in the main story while the less popular pairing will be put up in a side-story. The only reason I asked for a readers vote was so that I knew which pairing I needed to focus on first since the side-story will be updated slightly slower. The same reasoning applies to Sakura's fate, since her fate does affect the main plot, even if she's not really a main character in either sub-plot. You'll just see more of her in the un-fan-girl-ized version because her character will be developed further. _


	10. The Count Down Begins

**Disclaimer:** _All HP characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies and all Naruto characters are the property of Masashi Kishimoto. This is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites._

**Warnings:** _Mild to moderate violence, character death, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), some moderate Dumbledore bashing (he's more manipulative than evil but mostly just stubborn), and who knows what else. _

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

* * *

Chapter 9: The Count Down Begins

Satoshi ended up falling asleep an hour after dawn; his young body exhausted from his recent stint on the boarders, his efforts to make the preparations for his yearly vigil, the twenty-four hour vigil spent without any sleep or food, and the several hour long emotional meeting with the Outsiders. Kakashi, upon noticing that the ten year old was literally asleep on his feet, had scooped the boy up into his arms before he toppled over. It was a testament to just how tired Satoshi was that he didn't react to being picked up; something he would have done if he'd only been dozing lightly, like he usually did when he slept.

"_So… you referred to Ha… Satoshi as your little brother earlier,_" Lupin murmured as he moved to stand beside Kakashi so that he could study the now sleeping ten year old without the fear of being rebuffed a second time. "_Are you related to his adoptive family through marriage?_"

"_No, you could say that Satoshi-kun adopted me almost five years ago after spending close to three years mostly disliking me because I didn't get along with his favorite person. He's a rather persistent little bug and once he sets his mind to something he is not easily deterred._"

"_Prongs or rather James, his biological father, was the same way. I take it you've known him for most of the time he's lived here then?_"

"_Yes, I met him about six months after Shibi-san adopted Satoshi._"

"_Has he been happy here?_" Remus asked as he looked up to meet Kakashi's single eyed gaze (the gray-haired teen having long since hidden his left eye beneath his hitai-ate once more).

"_Yes, for the most part he has been very happy. He didn't open up to new people right away but once he did, he was always smiling and laughing; especially around those he considered family._"

"_You said was… you've been using past tense; is he not happy now?_"

"_He is still happy,_" Kakashi asserted as he lightly frowned down at the sleeping kid cradled in his arms. "_He is also still grieving. Three years ago there was trouble in the village and we lost a lot of good people that night; including a number of individuals that were family or as good as family to Satoshi-kun. As you might imagine; the loss of several people close to him in such a short period, hit him hard._"

"_Sadly, yes I can imagine. It's been nine years and I still miss James, Lily, and Peter. I was lost in my grief that first year after their death and it was only the thought that James and Lily's son was safe that allowed me to carry on day after day. I'll never forget the day I first learned someone had taken little Harry from his aunt's home. Rage replaced grief for two years before fear began eating away at me because of the growing speculation that he had been killed by those that had taken him. I cried in relief the day Dumbledore informed us that Harry, or rather Satoshi, had given off his first large scale burst of accidental magic in almost five years on February eighteenth, nineteen-eighty-seven; it was solid proof that he still lived._"

"_How did you know he used his magic that day?_"

"_Dumbledore has a device that is tied to Ha… Satoshi's magical core. It monitors and tracks any large scale magical output that Satoshi gives off and is what ultimately led us to Japan and then to the Hidden Countries in our efforts to find him. That's also how he'd known Ha… Satoshi (it's going to take a while to get used to calling him by his adoptive name) had disappeared from his relatives' house in the first place; he'd given off a large flash of accidental magic and then disappeared. It was believed the outburst was caused due to him fighting an unknown assailant; not that his magic had torn him from a borderline abusive home life._"

"_It could not have been used to track him even when he was not using his magic?_"

"_No; there are limits to what magic can and cannot do and when monitoring a child's magical core it only measures the accidental magic that a child gives off when experiencing extreme emotions or I suppose if they learn to manipulate a large enough amount of their magic wandlessly as it appears Ha… Satoshi has been doing. There are ways to physically track a child but they are only temporary spells that have to be reapplied frequently which is not really practical when monitoring a child's health from a distance. We can trace a person's magical signature through residual magic that builds up over time but that also requires us to be within five to ten miles of said residual._"

"_I see._"

The conversation between the two ended at that point as they both focused once more on the negotiations taking place between the Sandaime, Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Shibi. It was well after nine-thirty by the time the meeting ended and an agreement had been reached. In order to prevent Satoshi and those that would be going with him to protect him from being declared missing nins, Satoshi's years at Hogwarts would be treated as seven long term missions; or rather three long term missions in one for each year Satoshi would be attending the magical institution.

The basic mission, the one that Satoshi had been assigned, was a training mission to learn to use his Kekkei Genkai (or as the Outsiders called it; his magic). The second mission was for the three shinobi that would be going with Satoshi, which was to guard Satoshi during the course of his training (Shibi refused to allow his son to be sent off alone for the duration of the first mission). The third and final mission, assigned to all four shinobi, was to gather as much information about the wizarding world as they could (this mission a long term infiltration that Sarutobi personally assigned the group and a mission that the wizards would be unaware that the group was undertaking).

During the year leading up to the start of the first mission, Satoshi would be tutored three weeks a month by Remus Lupin (with one week off each month during the week of the full moon; not that the shinobi would be aware of that little detail). Lupin would be testing Satoshi on his grasp of the English language and his writing skills, catching him up on the current events in the wizarding world, teaching him about English and wizarding culture and traditions, and introducing him to English cuisine so he'd have no trouble fitting in at Hogwarts. Over the year of tutoring, Satoshi's missions would be limited to in village missions during his lessons on English wizarding culture and short out of village missions during the rest of the time.

The three shinobi going with Satoshi would be Kakashi, Kotetsu, and Izumo since all three of them spoke English fairly well and they were all very close to Satoshi (though Kotetsu and Izumo hadn't really spent much time with the ten year old since Kushina's death). Kotetsu and Izumo were also both very open and friendly individuals which meant that their presence would not alarm the wizards like most of the other Jounin would. That meant the three teens would also sit in on Lupin's English lessons to make certain they could read and write English as well as Satoshi could in addition to speaking it fluently.

The wizards (and one witch) ended up agreeing to stay another day in order to see the offered demonstration of Satoshi's skills and a limited tour of Konoha. While Sarutobi kept the wizards occupied and set them up in a hotel near the Hokage Tower (complete with two teams of AnBu to monitor their every move) Shibi and Kakashi took Satoshi home so all three of them could rest and give Ibiki and Tenzou a chance to rest. Kumade joined them as well while Kakashi informed the other Jounin on Satoshi's guard detail of the changes that would soon be occurring thanks to the newly signed agreement between the Hokage and the Outsiders.

* * *

Satoshi woke up about noon when Naruto and Shino pounced on him. He had a short moment of disorientation over finding himself in his bed when the last thing he remembered was standing in the Hokage's office but the memories of his swarm provided him with the information of what had happened. He was a bit perturbed to know he'd be required to go and learn magic at Hogwarts but quickly realized that knowing how to properly use his magic could potentially give him an edge on future missions. That was one of the reasons that Sarutobi and his father had been willing to consider allowing him to spend nine and a half months a year for the next seven years away from the village.

The ten year old soon pushed aside his musings as he allowed his brother and self-adopted brother to pull him out of his room and into the kitchen for lunch. On a whim, Satoshi dressed both three year olds in warm clothes, gathered up two of his guards (Ibiki and Tenzou since Kakashi and Kumade were still sleeping), and took the two boys to Ichiraku's Ramen Stand for lunch instead of making something himself. Naruto was especially thrilled to have ramen as that was the blonde's absolute favorite food. After they ate their fill (Naruto managing to scarf down two full bowls on his own), Satoshi took them to one of the less popular parks to allow the two boys to run around for a while and burn off some energy.

They'd only been there for about twenty minutes when Ko turned up with Hinata and Neji in tow and Satoshi greeted the almost three year old and four year old warmly before pointing them in the direction in which Naruto and Shino were currently playing. Once the sun started setting, Satoshi invited the three Hyuugas to join them for supper and the group headed back to the Aburame Compound after sending a few Kikaichu to his father to warn him they'd be having three extra guests for the evening meal.

As they ate, Satoshi couldn't stop thinking about how much time he'd be missing out on spending with the three children that had somehow integrated themselves so thoroughly into his life (his little brother a given since they were family). He also couldn't help but recall how Naruto had been treated prior to him rescuing the little blonde out of the trash can and how Hinata had almost been kidnapped by a Kumo Shinobi just a couple months ago. As he watched Naruto excitedly telling Kakashi about their day, Satoshi recalled how he'd been just under three years old when he began his ninja training.

Satoshi suddenly sat up straighter as the beginnings of an idea formed in his mind and gave all four children a searching glance before addressing his father, "Tousan?"

"Nani, little bug?"

"May I have permission to start training Naruto and Shino? I mean, I was not even three when you and ojiisan began teaching me how to train my body so I could be stronger and started teaching me chakra control exercises. I'm certain the Hyuuga have their own training schedules for Neji-kun and Hinata-chan but I'd be happy to work with them on simple chakra control exercises or even just basic strengthening exercises if they were interested too. I know I'd also have to speak with Hiashi-sama and Hizashi-san to get permission first."

"Neji-kun began his training this past January and Hinata-chan will be starting this January," Ko stated simply. "I don't think their fathers would mind if you were to help them with basic chakra control and simple physical conditioning exercises but I can ask them for you if you wish. Taijutsu and Ninjutsu training are closely monitored by the clan though, so they'd not be allowed to participate in those but everything else would be fine, I imagine, so long as they were closely supervised."

"Please, oji?" Naruto begged Shibi as stars began dancing in his eyes at the mere thought of spending more time with his niisan (and the promise of training wasn't anything to turn his nose up at either).

"I'll be spending most of this next year stuck doing D Ranked missions inside of the village," Satoshi reminded his father. "Meaning I could spend a couple of hours a day, five days a week working with the boys (and Hinata if she and Neji are allowed to join us) and give them the weekends and the one week a month I'll be allowed to leave the village to rest. By the time I have to go on that ten month long mission, I'll have been able to establish an easy to follow routine for them and when I'm back in the village I can check their progress and help them with the next step if they are ready."

"If their fathers are willing, I would be there to help monitor their training sessions," Ko added as he noted how interested both Hinata and Neji were in the proposed lessons. "In that case, I could also continue to supervise the lessons during the times that Satoshi-kun is out of the village to make certain they don't injure themselves and they don't slack off while he isn't there to supervise."

"I have no problem with you teaching our little tick," Shibi announced after taking in the expectant faces all around the table. "However, you would need the Hokage's permission to include our little mite in the lessons in addition to the Hyuugas' permission to include Hinata-chan and Neji-kun. I think you should include your cousin Shinichi as well since you've not really spent any time with him these last three years and his mother has not shown any interest in training him. You would also need to find a relatively safe place for them to practice."

"I don't mind including Shinichi-kun with the other children and I have several hidden places around Konoha where we could practice safely; I'd just have to key the children and their minders into the barriers," Satoshi revealed. "I made them a while ago and rarely ever use them. I can show you where they are and key you into them as well, tousan."

"Then you have my permission to ask the Hokage for permission to train Naruto-kun alongside your little brother and cousin tomorrow after your demonstration."

"Yosh!" Naruto cried excitedly to the amusement of the adults, teens, and one preteen gathered about the table.

"I will approach Hiashi-sama and Hizashi-san on your behalf, Satoshi-kun."

"Arigatou, Ko," Satoshi replied with a smile at the older teen before he returned his gaze to his father and inquired curiously, "Demonstration?"

"Hai, it was agreed that you would give our guests from earlier this morning a demonstration of your skills before they left. Our… clients want to see a sample of what you are capable of doing aside from the little trick you showed them last evening."

"Oh, I'd forgotten about that," Satoshi replied as he checked with his Kikaichu for the exact memory; since he'd been sleeping when the offer had been confirmed. "Do you know when we are supposed to meet them and where the demonstration will be held?"

"Yes; you'll be meeting the Hokage and your future clients on Training Ground Fifty-Three tomorrow at eight."

"Wakatta."

The rest of the meal passed by fairly quickly and Satoshi bid the trio of Hyuugas goodbye before he gave Shino and Naruto a bath. The ten year old then took Naruto back to the orphanage (the blonde for once not fussing like he usually did since he now had the future lessons to look forward to – Naruto not wanting or willing to believe that the Hokage would turn down Satoshi's request) while Shibi tucked the youngest Aburame into bed. Satoshi crawled into bed beside his brother the moment he returned, still feeling rather tired from the past two days and wanting to spend as much time with his brother as he could knowing that he'd not get much of a chance once he started Hogwarts.

The next morning, Satoshi arrived at Training Ground Fifty-Three at seven-thirty (fully decked out in his shinobi gear with the pair of wakizashi blades that Kushina had given to him on his seventh birthday strapped crosswise across his back) in order to start warming up. His current team of four guards was there as well; Kakashi and Tenzou to help him give his demonstration and Ibiki and Kumade to watch over him to make certain there were no further attempts to kidnap him. At five minutes till eight, the Hokage and the visiting wizards and witch turned up with an entourage of unseen AnBu guards that Satoshi's swarm could sense. The ten year old finished the kata he'd been in the middle of performing before he turned to face the Hokage and bowed respectfully to the Sandaime.

"Good morning, gentlemen," Sarutobi intoned as he included all three of the visible shinobi in the greeting. "I am pleased to see that you are here on time and well prepared for your demonstration. Please start with a simple one on one taijutsu spar moving onto a two on one spar after the first ten minutes before you give a brief display of your grasp of kenjutsu and ninjutsu."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," Satoshi murmured as he bowed a second time and waited while Kakashi and Tenzou flipped a coin to decide who would start the spar and Sarutobi led their audience back to the edge of the clearing.

Tenzou won the toss and Kakashi stepped back out of the way to allow the two plenty of room. Once both Satoshi and Tenzou were ready, Kakashi started the match and Tenzou quickly lashed out with his foot. Satoshi blocked and countered with a flurry of punches and kicks that were also blocked. The ten year old's speed allowed him a slight advantage over the heavier Jounin but Tenzou's longer reach and extra years of experience made up for any advantage that speed would have given the Chuunin in a regular match.

It also didn't help that the Jounin had been sparring with Satoshi for well over a year now and therefore knew most of Satoshi's taijutsu moves. The fact that Satoshi had memorized Tenzou's moves in return did help though and allowed the ten year old to anticipate which move Tenzou was most likely to use in any given sequence. Not that it really mattered all that much since they were simply giving the outsiders a general idea of Satoshi's skills. Once Kakashi joined in against Satoshi, the ten year old was really put through his paces as the two older teens coordinated their attacks.

If not for his speed, flexibility, and his swarm, Satoshi would have been hard pressed to block or dodge the majority of the kicks and punches thrown his way. As it was, the ten year old would end up with more than a couple of bruises before the Hokage called out for them to switch to swords. Tenzou dropped back as Satoshi pulled free both of his wakizashi blades while Kakashi pulled out the katana that he'd replaced his father's tanto with when the shorter sword had been broken during the mission on which Obito had died.

Satoshi used his left sword strictly to defend against Kakashi's attacks while he attacked in return with the sword in his right. The two of them danced back and forth across the clearing for close to twenty minutes and Satoshi was soon sweating from the intense workout while Kakashi almost seemed to be playing around (which he probably was since he had more training than Satoshi when it came to kenjutsu). It wasn't until Satoshi drew first blood on a lucky thrust that scratched Kakashi's arm that the two of them ended the sword fight and put away their blades.

Satoshi then took a short ten minute break to catch his breath while Tenzou rejoined them on the field in preparation for the ninjutsu demonstration. Knowing that he still didn't want to show the outsiders everything he could do, Satoshi decided to limit the jutsu he used that day to nothing more powerful than a high C ranked jutsu and avoid using his concrete release jutsu and his family jutsu. By mutual agreement, all three of them avoided using any clones since they didn't want the wizards to know they had ways of tricking people into believing that they were two places at once.

That still left the three of them with a large range of jutsu to show off though and Satoshi gave as good as he got as he used his E, D, and C ranked jutsu to great effect. Throwing in elemental manipulation of earth and water made it all the more impressive even if he didn't use any of his more devastating moves. After an hour, Satoshi ended up tied up in Tenzou's Mokuton and while he could have easily broken free from the wooden bindings, his ability to counter the Mokuton was considered a clan secret and therefore not something to display to Outsiders (or the hidden AnBu standing guard around the clearing).

It was nearly ten o'clock by that time and Satoshi bowed to the Hokage and his audience before he spent a good twenty minutes cooling down. During that time he also asked the Hokage about the possibility of training Naruto in just the basics and was given permission when Satoshi explained that he'd be training Shino, Shinichi, and possibly two of the Hyuuga as well; after the Hokage asked for and received a promise that he'd teach them nothing more than the basics until they earned their hitai-ate.

After asking a few questions about the demonstration; Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Shacklebolt took their leave while Lupin remained behind to start Satoshi's tutoring.

Over the next two weeks, Satoshi, Kakashi, Kotetsu, and Izumo were extensively tested on their grasp of the English language; Lupin had them write numerous essays, translate several children's books (from Japanese to English), and speak nothing but English during their language lessons. Kakashi and Satoshi had no trouble passing those tests due to their Sharingan and photographic memory respectfully while Kotetsu and Izumo were a little rusty because it had been three years since they'd really spoken to anyone but each other in English.

The two fifteen year olds, while sad over the reminder of their language lessons with Kushina, were thrilled to once again be working with Satoshi. Satoshi soon found himself opening up to the gregarious pair once more after a few days thanks to his memories of their years together as a team under Kushina (memories that represented some of the happiest years of Satoshi's life). The three of them often traded stories back and forth about missions they'd taken during the past three years or spent time reminiscing on those missions they'd taken together as part of Team Four.

Once he was finished with the morning tutoring sessions, Satoshi would complete one or two simple D Ranked missions on his own while Kotetsu and Izumo had guard duty at the main gate. While he worked, two of his guards would watch over him as none of the shinobi trusted that Fudge fellow after Kakashi and Satoshi provided a complete transcript of everything that had been said over the course of that eight hour meeting with the wizards. Occasionally, one of the four Jounin would step in and give Satoshi a hand with the chores he performed, though usually the ten year old had no trouble doing the work on his own or with the help of a pair of clones.

Each afternoon, Satoshi would finish his last mission no later than three-thirty so he could rush to the orphanage to pick up Naruto before the two of them would collect Shino and Shinichi and meet Ko at the hidden refuge Satoshi had set up that was roughly halfway between the Aburame Compound and the Hyuuga Estate. Satoshi would then use shadow clones to work with each of the five children; teaching each of them the proper way to stretch (except for Neji who already knew) and helping them learn to recognize the spiritual and physical energy inside of them. Once they had learned how to find and recognize their internal energies, he slowly began teaching them how to mold them together to form chakra and how to form the basic hand signs.

After several weeks of practice, Satoshi would go on to teach them how to perform the leaf sticking exercise. Naruto would have the toughest time getting the hang of the simple chakra control exercise simply because his chakra reserves were more than three times larger than the other children because of his Uzumaki heritage and the presence of the Kyuubi. Satoshi ended up helping Naruto the same way his father had helped him when he was first learning to channel his chakra; he set his Kikaichu on the three year old and drained him to more manageable levels while being extra careful not to drain him to the point of exhaustion least he wake up the Kyuubi by mistake.

Ko helped tremendously during this period of training as his Byakugan could monitor Naruto's chakra levels to make certain there was no risk. After the excitable three year old managed to successfully stick the leaf to his forehead, Satoshi began to slowly drain less and less chakra during the exercises until Naruto no longer needed the extra help (something that would take close to six months to accomplish).

Once their hour long training session was over, the group would either eat supper at the Aburame Compound or the Hyuuga Estate before Satoshi took Naruto back to the orphanage. The rest of Satoshi's evenings were spent working on any assignments that Lupin had given him or helping Kotetsu and Izumo with their assignments. He was then in bed by nine so he could be up before dawn to get in a couple of hours training before he started his next session with Lupin. Weekends were spent running short missions within Fire Country in order to allow Satoshi to stretch his legs and keep his skills from growing rusty with disuse.

Seventeen days after the other wizards had left; Lupin said a temporary goodbye and gave a promise to bring plenty of reading material with him when he returned in seven days. While he was gone, Satoshi and his team of four guards spent seven days running two back to back missions to outlying outposts to deliver supplies and gather reports from the shinobi based in those outposts. It was a nice change of pace for the ten year old since he'd been getting bored with the simple English lessons and mind numbing D Rank missions he'd been performing (training the five children the only thing he had to look forward to outside of his weekend missions).

On day eight, when Lupin returned, Satoshi's routine changed slightly again. After his morning workout, Satoshi would spend two hours reading through one of the books that Lupin had picked up for him and a third hour being quizzed on what he'd just read. Those books covered the recent history of the United Kingdom and the wizarding world, wizarding traditions and etiquette, current wizarding laws, and other pertinent information that would help Satoshi integrate himself into the wizarding world once he arrived. Satoshi would then head out to do his missions for the day while Lupin worked with Kotetsu and Izumo on their English. His afternoons were unchanged at that point since he'd still finish up by three-thirty so he could grab his little brothers and cousin and meet the three Hyuuga at their hidden training ground to practice.

After supper, once Naruto had been returned to the orphanage, Satoshi would then spend the evening listening to Lupin tell stories about his birth parents, teaching the wizard how to play Shogi, and tentatively getting to know the older man. This included telling Lupin some stories about growing up in the Aburame Clan and his life as a shinobi; though there was still much that he refused to reveal due to the information being classified or because he felt uncomfortable discussing the topic (this would include missions he'd been on and anything touching on his time with Kushina, Obito, his grandfather, or his mother). Lupin was more than a little shocked when he finally learned that Satoshi played host to well over forty thousand bugs during one of those nightly sessions after the start of the New Year.

On the morning of January seventeen, in the middle of Satoshi's fourth tutoring session, Lupin was once again shocked when he saw the ten year old walking around with a not quite fully grown Fawkes sitting on his shoulder while feeding the phoenix pomegranate seeds. He was further stunned when he learned that Satoshi and the rest of his family had believed the bird had been attacking Satoshi and he was quick to inform them that Dumbledore had sent the bird with a letter tied to his leg.

Unfortunately, the letter hadn't been seen and the flames of the phoenix's rebirth had incinerated the letter before it could be found. Remus was hard pressed not to laugh when he heard Kakashi calling the magical bird a self-roasting duck which earned the gray-haired teen a glare from said phoenix. When he left at the end of the month, Lupin took the phoenix with him to return him to his rightful owner and Satoshi was a little sad to see the strange bird leave as he'd grown attached to it over the months he'd cared for the bird after getting over his initial worry that the bird would harm him or kidnap him or worse, eat his swarm.

The rest of his tutoring sessions moved along quickly due to his perfect recall and Lupin was hard pressed to keep up with Satoshi as he steadily plowed through the books he brought. In order to prolong the usefulness of the tutoring sessions (so that he could spend more time with his pseudo nephew), Lupin began bringing in more and more obscure history and law texts for Satoshi to read through in addition to popular and classic English literature, magical plant encyclopedias, extensive rune dictionaries, and numerous books on magical theory. On the flip side, Satoshi and Kakashi also helped Lupin learn rudimentary Japanese since he was spending so much time in Konoha; something the English wizard greatly appreciated.

The money Satoshi earned from his numerous missions during that time was put towards purchasing supplies for the first of his long missions; warm clothes (since Lupin had warned him that it would be colder than he was used to in Scotland), extra weapons, additional medical supplies, plenty of blank scrolls for messages and sealing, and several new scrolls containing water and earth jutsu as well as a handful of A Ranked non-elemental jutsu that he could use to round out his arsenal. Any money left over was diligently saved so he could purchase his school supplies for his upcoming school year as he'd not yet been informed about the inheritance he'd been left upon the deaths of his biological parents.

The closer it got to August, and subsequently the closer it got to the day he was scheduled to leave the Hidden Countries for the first time since he'd been found in the forest and brought to Konoha, the tenser Satoshi got as he constantly worried over the upcoming training mission. He especially worried about leaving the children behind as he'd grown extremely attached to the four youngest (Shinichi being kind of standoffish since Satoshi had never really interacted much with him after the Kyuubi's attack) and didn't really want to leave them and his father behind.

During this time, Shibi was making arrangements to take him to Snow Country after his final tutoring session in order to acclimatize the young shinobi's Kikaichu to the cold so that they could better protect Satoshi while he was gone and help him keep his mind off his rapidly approaching departure.

When Lupin returned for what would be Satoshi's final tutoring session with the wizard, he brought with him Satoshi's Hogwarts letter, his ticket for the Hogwarts Express, and an early birthday gift for the magical shinobi in the form of a photo album containing pictures of James and Lily Potter (and their various friends) from their Hogwarts years and a few rare pictures of Satoshi from before that fateful Halloween night.

On the day that the wizard was due to leave for the last time, he was given a standing invitation to visit whenever he wished (whether Satoshi was there or not) by Shibi who'd grown to like the scholarly wizard over the course of the ten months he'd been teaching Satoshi. Satoshi had, by that time, started calling the man Uncle Moony as he had during the year and a half before his biological parents had died; much to Lupin's everlasting delight. The last thing Satoshi received before his honorary uncle left was a reminder that Professor McGonagall would be arriving to take him to purchase his school supplies towards the end of August.

Two days after saying goodbye to Moony, Shibi led Satoshi and Shinichi out of the village while carrying Shino on his back and the quartet made their way north towards Snow Country. It was the first time since the end of his Chuunin Exams two years earlier that Satoshi had actually traveled outside of the village with his father and he enjoyed it immensely. Shino and Shinichi both quite enjoyed the trip as well; this being the six year old's first time out of the village while the four year old hadn't been out of the village since he was one year old and he didn't remember much of that trip because he'd been so young at the time.

Satoshi wished he could have brought Naruto along for the trip as well but knew it wasn't wise to take the little Jinchuuriki out of the village while he was still so defenseless. The only reason the eleven year old didn't feel too guilty about leaving the little mite behind was because Kakashi and Tenzou had promised to keep an extra close eye on the blonde while he was gone; the two Jounin going so far as to promise to help supervise the on-going lessons with Ko. That promise also helped Naruto get over his depression at not being allowed to leave with the small Aburame family.

After a hard week of travel, the four Aburame caught a ship across the sea that separated the main continent of the Hidden Countries from Snow Country. It was actually Satoshi's first time riding on a ship and he spent most of the ride politely hounding the sailors for every last bit of information they knew about sailing and predicting the weather. At the same time, his Kikaichu were constantly observing the various tasks that the sailors performed as well as monitoring the ship's progress from above and below the water (his water bugs long since accustomed to salt water due to the periodical trips Satoshi had taken to Tea Country on missions over the years).

Shibi was greatly amused by his son's antics as the thirst for learning had been reawakened in his son by the several months spent tutoring under the watchful eye of Lupin; something that Satoshi had lost after Kushina and the others had died. Shibi didn't really count Satoshi's training as learning because expanding upon his ninja skills had been more of a duty than a choice and he hadn't really gone out of his way to learn new things until Kakashi and Tenzou had pushed him into it.

By the time their ship pulled into the dock in Snow Country, Satoshi, Shinichi, and Shino were all shivering from the cold and Satoshi had lost close to seven hundred water bugs to the freezing cold waters (those that hadn't died would gain a resistance to the icy water that they would forever pass on to their offspring). Once on relatively dry (if frozen) land, the quartet headed into the wilderness to set up their camp for the next week. The moment their camp was prepared, and a barrier put in place to protect them from trouble of the two-legged variety, Shibi instructed Satoshi, Shinichi, and Shino to send out a small fraction of their Kikaichu into the snow and ice for the day.

Satoshi then spent the rest of the day playing in the snow with his little brother and cousin; something they'd never done before since it doesn't snow anywhere in Fire Country except high up in the mountains. That night, just before they went to sleep, the three younger Aburame recalled their Kikaichu and Satoshi found that he'd lost one third of the fifteen hundred he'd sent out into the snow with his brother and cousin losing roughly the same percentage of their Kikaichu. He was little upset to lose quite so many but understood why it had to be done; he stood a good chance of losing all of his bugs while in Scotland if he didn't build up their resistance to the cold prior to leaving.

Their second day in Snow Country passed much the same as their first though Shibi took the time to teach the three boys about the different types of plants and trees that grew in the frozen region, the different kinds of ice that could form depending upon the weather conditions and the location, and how to anticipate snow storms and determine the severity of approaching blizzards with the help of the Kikaichu. That evening Satoshi picked up two new colonies of bugs unexpectedly as two different types of snow fleas joined his Kikaichu when they returned.

The normal, blackish blue snow fleas quickly integrated themselves into Satoshi's chakra swarm while the golden snow fleas were drawn to his magic. Shibi managed to collect some stragglers of both species and carefully stored them so they could start wild colonies back at the Aburame Compound in order to allow other Aburame to host the cold loving insects and make it possible for Satoshi to build up or replace their numbers without having to return to Snow Country each time those colonies were depleted. Two days later, Shinichi and Shino each picked up a colony of common snow fleas as well which thrilled the two boys to no end (both children had grown to love bugs nearly as much as Satoshi due to him spending so much time with the pair over the past year).

The rest of the week would pass in much the same way; with the three boys sending out a portion of their swarm each morning, spending the day learning about the surrounding land or playing in the snow, and spending each night counting the number of returning Kikaichu (and those bugs that were closely related to the Kikaichu – such as the snow fleas).

At the end of their week in the wilderness and snow, the four Aburame trooped back to the dock and headed home; all four of them carrying plenty of bugs to add to the Compound's collection, hosting several new colonies of snow fleas, and the three boys incubating their first generation of cold resistant Kikaichu. Most of the return trip was spent caring for the bugs they were carrying home; making certain that they were kept cool enough and that those that didn't eat chakra had plenty of food. They did run into a spot of trouble in Rice Field Country when they ran into a group of bandits. It wouldn't have been a big deal if it had just been Shibi and Satoshi but because they had Shino and Shinichi with them they were a bit restricted because they had to protect their youngest family members.

Eventually, the bandits were dealt with (a number of them being turned into statues when they tried taking the two younger children hostage at one point) and though they lost a full day of travel, the quartet still returned to Konoha with two days to spare before Satoshi and the newly formed Team Kakashi (the older teen the only Jounin on their team and therefore the leader by default) were due to head towards England and ultimately Scotland.

Satoshi spent half of those two days helping his father set up the newly collected wild snow fleas and the other cold loving insects they'd collected in a special cold box in the corner of the green house where the wild Kikaichu colonies were housed. The rest of the time he spent playing with his brother, his cousin, and the other children he'd befriended. Satoshi also celebrated his eleventh birthday now that they were back in the village; there had been no time to do so while they were traveling (not counting the dango, taiyaki, and anpan that Shibi had packed in a storage scroll for dessert after supper on Satoshi's actual birthday – which they'd eaten their first night onboard the ship on the way to Snow Country).

At nine-fifteen on the morning of the twenty-fifth of August, Satoshi entered the Hokage's Office carrying five crying children (Shinichi had finally thawed towards Satoshi during the trip to Snow Country) followed by his teammates, his father, and Ko.

Minerva McGonagall, who would be escorting the four shinobi to England, felt more than a little guilty over taking Satoshi away from his family when she witnessed the tearful children clinging to the eleven year old for all they were worth. The normally stern witch also felt much better about agreeing to leave the boy with his adopted family as she could easily see that they obviously cared for him. Out of all the children, Naruto and Shino were the hardest to console as they were the closest to their niisan and Satoshi promised he'd be back as soon as the mission was over and admonished them to keep up with their training while he was gone.

Satoshi had a moment of insecurity himself when it came time to say goodbye to his father; the eleven year old had clung to Shibi for dear life for a brief moment as he wrangled a promise from his father to spend the tenth of October helping his little brothers to honor the fallen. Satoshi then reluctantly released his father, accepted his mission scroll from the Hokage, and signed his name in the log book that the Hokage used to keep track of those shinobi that left the village on extended missions. Kakashi, Kotetsu, and Izumo quickly followed his lead and before Satoshi knew it; their small group was heading out of the village after waving weakly to his father and the children one last time.

It only took the five of them about two hours to reach their departure point; a small clearing well out of sight of the gates of Konoha (magically warded for privacy though none of the shinobi knew that yet). Five minutes later, he was grabbing hold of a lurid orange and lime green sock that was supposed to transport them out of Fire Country and into England. He had just enough time to glance back towards Konoha (the walls of the village completely obscured by the huge forests surrounding the village) one last time before he felt something grab hold of his stomach and yank him into a maelstrom of blue lights.

* * *

**Translations:** Japanese to English

Hai – yes  
Ojisan/oji/jisan – uncle  
Ojiisan/jiisan – grandfather  
Oniisan/niisan – older brother  
Otousan/tousan – father  
Wakatta – understood

* * *

**AN:** _There was something I was going to say but my brain is currently not cooperating… _

_Anyway, current poll results will be updated in the next chapter and the poll will remain open for another six days: at which point I will close the poll and tally up the review votes to include in the final number. Any votes posted in reviews after the 31__st__ will be ignored. ~ Jenn_


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